A SPECIAL LASER BY DEKA DONATED TO LEBANON

DEKA has donated a very sophisticated laser system to a Beirut hospital for the cure of burn scars to treat many victims of the big explosion at the Port of Beirut in August 2020

At the delivery ceremony of the laser device called PUNTO, the Ambassador of Italy to Lebanon, Dr. Nicoletta Bombardiere, Ing. Paolo Salvadeo, CEO of DEKA and General Manager of El.En. SpA, Ing. Francesco Badii of DEKA, Omed General Trading, DEKA’s Lebanese distributor, the President and the Executives of Rizk Hospital in Beirut, and Dr. Zeina Tannous, graduate dermatologist from Harvard University were present at the event. Dr. Tannous will be tasked with giving hope, with the new laser, to those patients completely disfigured by the explosion, and who also have difficulties with limb movement, due to scars on specific parts of their bodies, “The Beirut Explosion occurred in the port area of the Lebanese city on August 4, 2020 around 6PM, killing 218 people and injuring 7000. The main incident was linked to the detonation of 2.750 tons of ammonium nitrate – says Salvadeo – “a real tragedy for which we have now decided to do something important”.
“The idea of the donation, in fact – says Salvadeo – stems from a recent discussion with Professor Rox Anderson, a famous American scientist in the photo-medicine field, who was Dr. Tannous’ tutor at Harvard. With Rox we have decided that it was time we re-engaged in other operations for humanitarian purposes, after our joint mission in Armenia, where he cured several children, with one of our lasers donated to a hospital, who were the victims of an explosion caused at a party by a cigarette which had ignited hundreds of balloons which had been inflated with hydrogen instead of helium. Rox told me that his former student, Zeina, had decided to return to Lebanon after her degree, and that, as her mission, she had decided to help the victims of explosions and burns.
It was then that the executive phase of the mission started: Local contacts were made to import the equipment, a clinical training was conducted and we now can’t wait to start with the treatments”, concluded Salvadeo. DEKA and El.En. are not new to initiatives like that in Yerevan, Armenia or in Beirut. The parent company’s management team, in fact, actively supports numerous humanitarian operations and donations which hold a fundamental role inside the Group’s sustainability goals.
The PUNTO laser, object of the donation, is a very sophisticated CO2 system equipped with a special automatic scanner, pediatric called SCAR 3, designed for scar treatment. The luminous radiation created by the equipment interacts selectively with the fibrotic components of the scar tissue, stretching it. The system is also equipped with free-hand activation handpieces to treat more complex areas which have lesser ease of access.

“The importance of the donation by DEKA has been underscored by Ambassador Nicoletta Bombardiere’s presence at the event – stated Ing. Francesco Badii from DEKA – With our gesture we in fact believe we have done something very important for Lebanon, but also for our country’s image in the world”.