The medical staff in the Moulay Hassan Ben Mehdi hospital of Laayoune performed recently a successful open heart surgery, the first intervention of its kind in the southern provinces of Morocco.
This procedure, which is a part of a cardiovascular diseases and cardiac surgery human initiative, was carried out by Dr. Reda Bzikha, a cardiovascular surgeon at the regional hospital of Laayoune, under the supervision of a medical team from the Hassan II University Hospital of Fez and the hospital Al-Ghassani in the same city.
Three patients from Laayoune, Boujdour, and Tarfaya have benefited from these free of charge surgeries, funded by the Al Mahaba Association for Social Welfare in Laayoune, under the supervision of the wilaya and the regional direction of Health and Social Protection.
Regional Director of Health and Social Protection Ali El Haouari welcomed this commendable initiative, stressing that the Ministry needs to provide the cardiovascular service with the necessary equipment to ensure the sustainability of this kind of surgeries for the population of the southern regions.
Prof. Mohamed Messouak, cardiovascular surgeon and head of the cardiovascular department at Hassan II Hospital expressed his willingness to continue performing such voluntary operations.