Rockets Fall...as We Save Hearts

Despite rockets falling in Sderot, a major school strike that has all but crippled the junior and high school studies this year, and many other problems, Israelis continue to reach out to others that desperately need our help.

Although there are many organizations and people who are trying to help others both here in Israel and abroad, this group (Save a Child's Heart), has a focused goal and does an incredible job - and all without dealing with politics. The place where a child is born, the child's gender or religion mean nothing to this organization. It's an incredible goal - and almost more impressive is their quest to bring their knowledge and expertise to local doctors. There is a concept in Judaism that better than to give one a fish dinner, is to teach them to fish.

Fixing a child's heart is so important it transcends location and politics - this is the message of this incredible Israeli organization - and even more impressive is their willingness to bring doctors to Israel so that they can learn, so that they can save. During a week in which dozens of rockets and mortars were launched against Israel, we would have every right to turn to our own needs, to worry about our own population that is being terrorized daily by rocket attacks from Gaza, and yet this organization and these doctors cared enough to go to a far away country to save the lives of children who desperately needed them...this is Israel.

According to YNET News:

Save a Child's Heart" (SACH) organization sent a medical mission to Moldova's capital, Kishinev, to provide emergency medical care to a group of young cardiac patients. The mission headed by Dr. Lior Sasson Director of Cardiothoracic Department at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, operated on seven local children whose life were in danger – and saved them.

In addition, mission members examined 30 other young patients who due to complications, will be transferred to Israel for further treatment. The surgeries were performed jointly by the Israeli doctors and their Moldovian colleagues. Some of the local doctors were invited to Israel for training in pediatric cardiology. The local media referred to the Israeli doctors as "the Israeli angels."

SACH has been working in Moldova since 1996 and is responsible for saving the lives of some 50 children and for training local cardiac surgeons. The organization is a part of an international humanitarian project, based in Israel, dedicated to performing live-saving cardiac surgeries and providing medical treatment to children in developing countries.