In October, 2004, in Soba, a village 12 miles from Khartoum, EMERGENCY began the construction of a Regional Center for Cardiac Surgery to provide highly specialized medical and surgical assistance to cardiac patients.

Thousands of adults and children will benefit from the Center in particular those with congenital malformations or cardiovascular pathologies associated with rheumatic fever people who would otherwise have no possibility of undergoing highly specialized surgery free of charge.

The Centre, operative since april 2007, is entirely run by EMERGENCY, from both a clinical and administrative standpoint. Highly specialized international personnel provides training for local staff in order to guarantee high quality treatment and to increase the professional know-how of staff from Sudan and its neighbouring countries.

The Centre is now able to perform an average of five open heart surgeries per day, in addition to screening and post operative follow up care. Once fully operational, the Centre for Cardiac Surgery will be able to deal with approximately 1,500 surgical procedures per year.