Dr. Avraham Lorber, the Head of the Pediatric Cardiology Unit at Rambam Health Care Campus performed cardiac catheterization on 11 year old Zohara from the city of Baku in Azerbaijan last month. Zohara was diagnosed by Dr. Lorber in her home city where he treated her while on a voluntary humanitarian medical mission to her country.

Zohara suffered from a cardiac malformation caused by leaking fluid from an embryonic tube in her heart that should have closed at birth, resulting in the expansion of cardiac chambers. Since Azerbaijan lacked the medical technologies necessary for performing the minimally invasive surgery that Zohara so desperately needed, a coordinated charitable effort led by local and Israeli bodies organized the transfer of the 11 year old to Rambam. The efforts would not have been complete without the generosity of Pfm Medical, Inc. that donated the innovative spiral coil system used to stop the leak in Zohara's heart, with the precision to avoid disruptions to neighboring fluid flow systems.

The procedure, which took over 40 minutes to complete, was a great success and Zohara was released from hospital already the next morning after her surgery.
Dr. Lorber is no first comer to humanitarian missions. Within the framework of the Pediatric Cardiology Unit, Dr. Lorber leads the initiative "Heart of a Child Program" that is an ambulatory service that supports and treats patients with heart murmurs in centers and remote communities in Israel's northern region. Moreover, his Unit is also very active in assisting and supporting humanitarian cases of congenital heart murmurs in neighboring nations.