Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

New pediatric cardiac intensive care unit built in Makassed
On July 30, 2006, ventilators for the new pediatric cardiac intensive care unit in Makassed Hospital on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem were delivered. These ventilators were a part of the new PCRF program to build a pediatric cardiac surgery program for Palestine, where hundreds of Arab children are born each year with heart disease. Since 1998, the PCRF has sent over 70 cardiac surgery missions to Palestine and treated several hundred children locally for free by many visiting teams from all over the world. Rather than these children dying or having to go abroad for medical care, the PCRF came up with a plan to build the first and only pediatric cardiac surgery program in Palestine.

After years of planning and months of construction, the doors for the new pediatric ICU finally opened in November 2006. Now that the ICU is open, the PCRF will continue to bring foreign medical teams to Makassed to work side by side with the local staff to help provide them with expert training. The goal is to have Palestinian children with heart disease be treated by Arab doctors in and Arab hospital.