Metro Atlanta nonprofit heads to Ethiopia on fourth mission to improve cardiac care

Nonprofit heads to Ethiopia

A metro Atlanta nonprofit organization called Heart Attack Ethiopia will leave July 4th on its fourth mission to improve cardiac care in that country.

NEWNAN, Ga. - While families across metro Atlanta celebrate July 4th, a team of doctors and volunteers will be traveling to Ethiopia to help with what has been described as a health crisis.

Dr. Tesfaye Telila, an interventional cardiologist at Piedmont Newnan Hospital tells us the group will also take more than $2-million dollars worth of medical supplies with them.

The backstory:

This will mark the fourth mission for Heart Attack Ethiopia. It was founded by Dr. Telila and his wife, Dr. Obsinet Merid, who is on the faculty of Morehouse School of Medicine, both live in Coweta County.

They will lead a team of 33 people, including doctors from the U.S., Canada and India as well as other health professionals and volunteers to their home country of Ethiopia, where there is a waiting list of more than 15,000 people who need immediate cardiac care.

"This includes children, adults and even pregnant women," Telila said.

Big picture view:

Their goals for the two weeks are ambitious. More than 120 to 140 procedures, including pediatric and adult heart surgeries, also coronary angiography and stenting, pacemakers and ablations, and for the first time ever in Ethiopia, a transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

Dr. Tesfaye Telila, an interventional cardiologist at Piedmont Newnan Hospital tells us the group will also take more than $2-million dollars worth of medical supplies with them.

"Which is like putting in a valve without opening up the patient’s check," Telila said.

An important development in Heart Attack Ethiopia’s ongoing missions. They say for the first time they will begin teaching doctors there how to perform these life-saving procedures. They say sustainability is an important goal so that health facilities are self-sufficient between the groups' missions.

What you can do:

You can learn more about Heart Attack Ethiopia on social media and the web.