Lane Kirschner

Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) is an Israeli-based international humanitarian project. Our mission is to improve the quality of cardiac care for children from developing countries and to create centers of competence in these countries.

The SACH mission is achieved through the following:

·Providing life-saving cardiac surgery and other procedures for children from developing countries via a team of dedicated experts who donate their time at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel.

· Training medical personnel from countries served by the organization

·Leading surgical and training missions to partnering countries in the developing world

·Holding pre-operative and follow-up cardiology clinics both in Israel and abroad

SACH patients, ranging from infants to teenagers, come from the “Four Corners of The Earth”: from St. Vincent and Ecuador in the American Continent to China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam in the Far East; from Russia, Moldova and Ukraine to Ethiopia and Zanzibar; from Jordan, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority to Nigeria and Congo – 40 different locations to date.

The founder and driving spirit of SACH was the late pediatric cardiac surgeon, Dr. Amram (Ami) Cohen. From 1995 until he passed away in 2001, while climbing Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro, Dr. Cohen dedicated his time to saving children in need. His vision, commitment, and outstanding professional skills have taken this life-saving undertaking to a prominent position within the international community of humanitarian health organizations.

Since its inception in 1996, the SACH medical team has examined and evaluated more than 6,000 children. The number of cardiac surgeries performed by SACH has grown dramatically from 48 cases in 1996 to 206 in 2009; and in total over 2,400 children have been treated.