A Greek surgeon who voluntarily performed more than 30 cardiac surgeries at a Mauritius hospital in the space of two weeks will be honored for his charitable contribution in Thessaloniki on Friday.
Kyriakos Anastasiadis, professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, chose to help the people of the Indian Ocean nation in 2012, because, as he said, the country suffers from high rates of heart disease caused by diabetes.
Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) Anastasiadis said that “many people, even by the age of 30, suffer from coronary heart disease mainly due to the early onset of diabetes”.
He explained that “this is because Mauritius is the second-largest producer of sugar in the world…sugar cane plantations cover 95 percent of the country. Diabetes has a huge impact on the population.”
“There was great need for heart surgery,” he said and that’s why he decided to help.
“Each day I operated [on] two or three patients. I must have operated [on] more than 30,” the surgeon added.
Anastasiadis has also worked voluntarily in other African countries such as Uganda, Congo and Egypt, under the auspices of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa.
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