For some Zimbabwe children with heart disease, a rare lifeline restores hope

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Tubes snaked across 3-year-old Gracious Chikova’s bandaged chest in the intensive care unit of a government hospital in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Just a day earlier, surgeons had opened her tiny heart to repair a defect that threatened her life. Now she sipped a drink from a syringe, her mother anxiously watching her every breath.

“I had given up. Those with money have been taking their children to India for surgery, but I simply couldn’t afford it,” said Vimbainashe Chakanungwa as she helped her daughter sip her meal. Chakanungwa’s monthly salary as a teacher is about $300, barely enough for household basics, let alone surgery.

Gracious is one of 10 children who received free open-heart surgery in July at Parirenyatwa Hospital from a visiting team of Egyptian surgeons working alongside Zimbabwean doctors.

In a country with just a handful of cardiothoracic specialists and chronic shortages of functioning equipment in public hospitals, the “heart camp” offered hope to families who can’t imagine raising the $15,000 needed for surgery abroad.

Zimbabwe has only five cardiothoracic surgeons, including Dr. Kudzai Kanyepi, the country’s first and only female heart surgeon.

“There is no medication that can replace surgery. The burden of disease remains, and unfortunately some of the children pass away without getting the help they desperately need,” Kanyepi said. “It is the reason why we continue to work in our country. There is nothing greater than helping your own people.”

Zimbabwe resumed open-heart operations in 2023 after they were paused in 2018 due to economic turmoil. Since then, local surgeons have operated on 55 children.

Another 19 have benefited from two surgical camps last year and in July with Egyptian assistance and supported by nongovernmental organizations such as Gift of Life International.

Globally, about one in every 100 children is born with congenital heart disease, making it the world’s most common birth defect, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Zimbabwe, an estimated 4,500 children are born with heart disease each year, with many unable to access surgery, said Dr. Simukayi Machawira, head of cardiology at the hospital.

Of those, 30% — or around 1,200 infants — are likely to die in their first year if untreated, he said.

“You can imagine, it’s quite a lot of children,” he said.

Dr. Hesham Shawky, the Egyptian team leader, has organized similar camps in Kenya and Uganda. “This is the only solution for many people in Africa because they can’t afford private care,” he said.

On the ward in Zimbabwe, mothers hovered over their children, relief etched on their faces. Machines beeped softly as nurses adjusted tubes. One baby slept beside a balloon scrawled with a smiley face.

For Chakanungwa, the joy over her child was hard to measure.

“I had resorted to prayer, just hoping for a miracle,” Chakanungwa said, smiling. “It’s impossible to open my heart to show my gratitude and happiness. I was afraid that I could lose my baby, but here is the baby. She’s back to life.”

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A doctor checks on a Anashe Mugoba as she recovers from an open-heart surgery at Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare, Zimbabwe, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

A doctor and staff members check on Anashe Mugoba as she recovers recovers from an open-heart surgery at Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare, Zimbabwe, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Vimbainashe Chakanungwa, left, watches on as her 9 year-old daughter Graciuos Chikovo sits on the chair as she recovers as she recovers from an open-heart surgery at Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare, Zimbabwe, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Violet Petro watches her 9 year-old son Ethan Goronga playing games on a mobile phone as he recovers from an open-heart surgery at Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare, Zimbabwe, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Kimberly Raisi lies on the bed as she recovers as she recovers from an open-heart surgery at Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare, Zimbabwe, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana lawmakers passed a new congressional map Friday designed to pick up a Republican seat while leaving the state with just one of its two majority-Black House districts represented by Democrats.

Approval of the new House map came a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current map as an illegal racial gerrymander, weakening the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act. That decision intensified a national redistricting battle fueled by President Donald Trump’s efforts to protect the Republicans’ slim House majority in the midterm elections.

Louisiana Republicans had considered drawing a map giving the party a shot at winning all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. But that would have required adding more Black voters to Republican-held districts, potentially backfiring with losses. Some Republicans said a 5-1 map better protects U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson from facing a difficult reelection.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign the new map into law.

In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, several other Republican-controlled Southern states have seized upon a weakened federal Voting Rights Act to try to redraw their own congressional districts. It’s the latest flare-up in a heated national redistricting battle heading into the November elections, spurred along by President Donald Trump.

So far, Republicans are winning the redistricting contest. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will win a narrowly divided U.S. House in November. So far, Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats from their redistricting efforts, while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.

In Louisiana, Republicans currently hold four of six congressional seats on a court-ordered map drawn in 2024 to comply with the Voting Rights Act by including a second district with a majority-Black population.

That map, however, was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court responded on April 30 by striking it down as an illegal racial gerrymander.

Landry postponed the state’s U.S. House primary, scheduled for May 16, until later this summer to allow time for Republican lawmakers to draw and pass a new map.

The proposed map redraws Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields' district, clustering it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. It also adds part of Baton Rouge to a heavily Democratic, majority-Black district based in New Orleans currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.

More lawsuits were expected over the new map.

Democrats say the proposed map could still constitute a racial gerrymander because it packs Black voters into a single congressional district. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision criticized the Legislature's map for leaving a majority-Black district in place.

Several other Southern states also have acted on redistricting since the Supreme Court's decision.

Florida’s Legislature passed new congressional districts just hours after the ruling, completing a redrawing that was in the works in anticipation of the decision. It could yield Republicans as many as four additional seats in the midterm elections.

Tennessee adopted new U.S. House districts a week after the ruling, carving up a majority-Black district based in Memphis in a Republican attempt to win an additional seat.

In Alabama, Republicans are attempting to pick up another seat by redrawing two districts where Black residents compose a majority or close to it. Democrats hold both seats, and the proposal is mired in a court battle.

South Carolina’s Senate, meanwhile, decided against redistricting, despite pressure from Trump.

Mary Anne Mushatt, of the League of Women Voters and the Orleans Parish Democratic Committee, right, hugs Rep. Tammy T. Phelps, D-District 3, after a redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district, in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, was passed by the House in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A person opposed to the redistricting plan reacts as she leaves the Louisiana House chambers after the plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district, in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, was passed in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Louisiana Rep. Gerald Beaullieu, IV, R-Dist 48, speaks prior to a Louisiana House vote on a redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Louisiana Rep. Kyle M. Green, Jr., D-Dist 83, speaks prior to a Louisiana House vote on a redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Louisiana Reps. Adrian Fisher, D-Dist 16, left, Chad Michael Boyer, R-Dist 46, and C. Travis Johnson, D-Dist 21, right, recite the pledge of allegiance prior to a house vote on a redistricting plan to eliminate a majority-Black congressional district in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)