George Sargon Kanon

Age: 42
Diagnosis: Heard Defect
Place of origin: Iraq
Story:

George is 42 years male from Iraq with a birth defect of the heart (TOF) which was repaired in London in 1975. Over the last several years, he has been deteriorating due to malfunction of his repaired heart valves. George spent the last few months of his life in and out of the hospital due to end-stage heart failure. He also developed ascending aortic aneurysm.

The Medical Relief Project (MRP) was able to secure a treating hospital in Malaysia, Penang Adventist Hospital that was going to treat him on charity basis. On the way to Malaysia, he went into heart failure again as soon as he landed in Qatar. He was transported to al- Hamad Hospital in Doha, Qatar. In spite of all efforts to improve his condition, he never improved enough to be able to continue his journey. The cardiac unit under the leadership of Dr. al-khlaifee graciously took up the challenge and performed a thirteen hours surgery that unfortunately was not tolerated by George who passed away on March 20, 2008. The body was transported to Baghdad, Iraq as per George’s wishes.

We would like to express our gratitude to AAS-A, al-Hamad Hospital and its staff, all Iraqi supporters who were available to George and his sister at their most stressful times, and the Penang Adventist Hospital.