SAIF Golden Charter

11 pacemakers and defibrillators implanted in Sudan

Dr Zaheer Yousef, a Consultant Cardiologist of University Hospital Wales, acted on behalf of Pace4Life and partner the University of Michigan on a recent mission to Sudan, Africa, a follow-up to our 2015 visit.

During Dr Yousef’s visit he implanted 11 devices (six pacemakers and five defibrillators) whilst also presenting at the Sudan Heart Federation Conference in Wad Madani, Sudan.

As ever, our Sudanese colleagues were hospitable and welcoming and keen to push our efforts for pacemaker reuse in Sudan.

During the conference we presented a questionnaire to all attendees and the overall results showed an overwhelming support for pacemaker reuse with the results to be shortly presented to the Sudanese Ministry of Health in order to push for full and formal approval.

Prior to the conference Dr Yousef implanted 11 term-expired devices (made up of six pacemakers and five internal defibrillators) and also followed-up with a number of patients from our mission in 2015. The mission was a great success and it was humbling to meet patients past and present and see first-hand the happiness our missions have brought.

All of which wouldn’t have been possible without the support and help of our supporters, especially SAIF. The mission was funded by the recycling of pacemakers without consent forms for their metals sent to us by SAIF members. I would like to thank you all for facilitating these.

By continuing your support and now focusing on pacemakers with signed consent forms and sending them to Pace4Life via the designated drop-off point, SAIF can help us reach even more people through our pacemaker reuse programme. So, if you haven’t already, please sign up via our website, download our instruction pack (NOK permission forms, cleaning, packaging and posting) and support our further missions.