Czech medical team performs surgeries on 26 Jordanian, Syrian children

AMMAN — A medical team from the Czech Republic recently concluded a medical mission to perform surgeries on 26 Jordanian and Syrian children in the Kingdom, according to Czech Ambassador to Jordan Petr Hladík.

The team operated “successfully” on children suffering from serious injuries or congenital abnormalities in the capital’s Al Maqased Charity Hospital and Al Khalidi Medical Centre, according to a statement from Hladik e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

The May 7 to 15 mission was the fifth in Jordan as part of the Czech government’s MEDEVAC programme in the Kingdom for 2015, which is worth 50 million Czech korunas (over $2 million), according to the ambassador.

The medical team consisted of two orthopaedists, Jíri Chomiak and Robert Juzek; a head plastic surgeon, Martin Molitor; anaesthesiologist Mária Touficová; specialised nurse Dana Kafková and administrator Jan Duben.

Two other medical teams are scheduled to take part in another medical mission to Jordan towards the end of this month, a source at the embassy said, with further details of the MEDEVAC programme’s activities in the Kingdom to be disclosed later.

Under the programme, dozens of patients have been treated in the the Czech Republic and Jordan since 2013.

“The Czech Republic continues and will continue to provide assistance to Jordan in order to help to carry some of the enormous burden caused by the crises going on in its neighbourhood,” Hladík said in the statement.

The diplomat added that the Czech government is planning to further enhance its cooperation and contributions in two important sectors connected with the crisis in neighbouring Syria — education of Syrian refugees and improvement of living conditions in the Zaatari Refugee Camp, some 90km northeast of Amman, which is home to some 83,500 refugees.