Centre Coeur de l’Enfant

In December 2016, Heartbeat inaugurated at Hotel-Dieu de France hospital the most highly equipped center in the Middle East for the management of congenital heart disease. Designed as a colorful oasis within the hospital, the “Heart of the Child” center (Centre du Coeur de l’Enfant) includes the most advanced ultrasonography (echo) machine in the world, giving the most complete details of the structure of the heart, even that of the fetus, still inside its mother uterus. The center is also home to Philippe El Hage National Register for Congenital Heart Disease.

Screening & Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease

As part of its commitment to save many lives, Heartbeat launched a medical program aiming to screen and prevent cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in men and women. The program held in memoriam of Philippe El Hage consists of visiting villages all over Lebanon to provide villagers with screening tests for diabetes, cholesterol, and high blood pressure as well as physical examinations by heart specialists. Following diagnosis, patients receive important advice related to nutrition, diabetes, and smoking cessation to prevent cardiovascular disease, while the more severe cases get offered the necessary medication for treatment.
With a total of eleven campaigns to date, the program has mobilized more than 200 volunteers whose expertise, enthusiasm, and devotion brought help to more than 1,500 villagers around Lebanon.

(Watch Documentary)

Treating Syrian Refugee Children

In 2011 Heartbeat has witnessed an increasing number of Syrian refugees who approached the organization seeking assistance for the treatment of their children. As part of Heartbeat's commitment to saving children's lives without discrimination, it became mandatory to find the necessary funds to fulfill this objective.
Since then, Heartbeat was able to treat over 300 Syrian Refugee children through partnerships with local and international organizations and corporations. Heartbeat partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who now provide the funds for medical treatment of those children. Other contributors include La Chaîne de L'Espoir (France), CMA CGM Corporate Foundation (France), Let It Beat (Switzerland) Al-Othman Charitable Foundation (Kuweit) and Federazion delle Chieze Evangelich (Italy).

The Iraq Program

Heartbeat and La Chaine de l’Espoîr International (based in Paris) signed an agreement with Ibn Al-Bitar Hospital, a specialized center for cardiac surgery in Baghdad, to offer treatment to a number of Iraqi children affected by war and malnutrition. The program also offered training to the Iraqi staff at the department of cardiac surgery at Hotel-Dieu de France hospital. From 2011 to 2015, Heartbeat received and treated 114 Iraqi children and helped over 300 trainees expand their experience in pediatric cardiac interventions.
This program is a perfect example of the transfer of knowledge Heartbeat is proud of fostering in the region.

Prenatal Diagnosis of Cardiac Anomalies

In an attempt to improve the use of prenatal diagnosis ultrasound to diagnose the complete prenatal spectrum, Heartbeat, in collaboration with BLC Bank organized the logistics to help the pediatric cardiology team at Hotel-Dieu hospital develop seminars on prenatal screening of congenital cardiac anomalies. A total of 4 seminars were held in different regions of Lebanon (Keserwan, North, Beqaa, and South) grouping over 200 specialists. The conferences included up-to-date state-of-the-art presentations on fetal echography and echocardiography and were all by a dinner.

Al Waleed Bin Talal Paediatric Intensive Care

In 2009, the Al Waleed Bin Talal Paediatric Intensive Care was launched at Hotel-Dieu de France hospital, enabling Heartbeat to provide the highest medical technology available for the treatment of children with heart disease. Due to the ever-growing number of sick children treated in this hospital, the unit was expanded in the summer of 2013. This massive task has been achieved under the personal care and watch of Mrs. Leyla Solh Hamade, vice-president of the foundation. Watch the inauguration documentary