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Our Medical Partner

Get to Know Us
Our policy is to partner with the best available heart centers. For this reason, we’re proud to be affiliated with the Children's Heart Center (CHC), the leading heart center in Beirut and the Middle East.

One of Brave Heart’s main goals is to provide children diagnosed with a Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) with the best medical care available in Lebanon, as we believe this to be vital to the child’s wellbeing. This is why, from the very beginning, we’ve chosen to partner with the Children’s Heart Center (CHC) at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC).

With a surgical success rate of 98%, the CHC has had a major impact on the lives of children with heart disease in Lebanon. It is the only comprehensive center for CHD in the country and treats over 75% of all of Lebanon’s congenital cardiac patients. A pioneering heart center in the Middle East, the CHC has achieved worldwide recognition and is comparable today to the best benchmarks in the United States.

With our support, the CHC made history in June 2017, performing the first successful pediatric heart transplant in Lebanon and the region, and earning a position alongside the best cardiac centers globally.

The CHC’s multidisciplinary medical team offers its time and services pro bono to support our mission. The team also coordinates with vetted regional medical centers outside of Beirut to ensure the children receive the proper step-down care while remaining close to their homes and their loved ones.

The CHC also bravely chose to remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic, performing 44 urgent lifesaving procedures funded by Brave Heart.
We would not have been able to fulfill our mission without our deep-rooted partnership with the CHC.

Meet a few members of the AUBMC CHC team

Dr. Fadi Bitar

Dr. Fadi Bitar

Dr. Fadi Bitar is Founding Director of the (CHC), Co-Director of the Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) Genetics Research Program, and Associate Dean for External Medical Affairs at AUB, and Co-Founder of Brave Heart. He is also Professor of Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, and former President of the Pan Arab Congenital Heart Disease Association.

After earning his medical degree from AUB, Dr. Bitar completed his training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology at the State University of New York, Health Science Center at Syracuse, and went on to complete specialized training at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Bitar has earned worldwide recognition as a leading pediatric cardiologist, and has made major contributions in his field, such as the establishment of educational and clinical programs resulting in improvements towards the care of thousands of children with CHD.

He has introduced new modalities and techniques for treatment of heart diseases, including first-of-its-kind procedures and important discoveries regarding the genetic causes of CHD. Throughout the course of his career, Dr. Bitar has received several international awards, honors, medals and research grants.
Dr. Ziad Bulbul, MD

Dr. Ziad Bulbul, MD

Dr Ziad Bulbul is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. He is currently Director of Pediatric Echocardiography Laboratory as well as Director of the Fellowship Training program at AUB.

Dr. Bulbul received his MD from AUB. He completed his general pediatric training at the University of Florida, and his specialized training in cardiology at Yale University. He is former Head of the Pediatric Cardiology section and the Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship training program at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC).

Dr. Bulbul has been very active in the field of pediatric cardiac imaging, with special interest in three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography. He has numerous publications in pediatric cardiology and has lectured on 3D echocardiography in various international forums.
Dr. Mariam Arabi

Dr. Mariam Arabi

Dr. Mariam Arabi is Director of the Fetal Heart Program and the In-patients service at the CHC, and Assistant Professor in Pediatric Cardiology.

She underwent special training in fetal echocardiography in Phoenix, Arizona, and joined the CHC in 2009. Her research interests include prenatal diagnosis of CHD, pulmonary hypertension, metabolic cardiac diseases, and the genetics of CHD. Dr. Arabi is currently the clinical coordinator of several ongoing research projects, including the “Discovery of genetic causes of Congenital Malformations”, the “Cardiac manifestation in patients with homozygous hypercholesterolemia” and the “Prevalence of pulmonary hypertension in patients with sickle cell disease”.

In addition to her extensive clinical and research responsibilities, Dr. Arabi plays a major role in the educational activities at the CHC, and has been strongly active in humanitarian activities aimed at supporting children diagnosed with CHD.
Dr. Yehya Jassar, M.D.

Dr. Yehya Jassar, M.D.

Dr. Yehya Jassar is a pediatric cardiac surgeon who joined the CHC in November 2021. After completing his residency in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Hôtel-Dieu de France hospital, he pursued a one-year fellowship in Congenital Adult Cardiac Surgery at Claude Bernard Bichat Hospital, Paris, followed by a two-year fellowship in Neonatal and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at Marie Lannelongue Hospital, Paris. Dr. Jassar has earned a Diploma in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery from Paris Descartes University, and a diploma in Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care from Bordeaux University.

He has more than six years of experience in complex neonatal and pediatric cardiac surgery, performing approximately 150 rare and highly-complex operations per year with a high success rate. Dr Jassar has also published papers in several renowned scientific journals.
Mounir Obeid, M.D.

Mounir Obeid, M.D.

Dr. Mounir Obeid is Professor of Cardiac Surgery at AUB, Ex-Chief of Staff at AUBMC, and a founding member and former President of the Lebanese Thoracic Surgery, Cardiac and Vascular Surgery Society. Dr. Obeid headed the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Program at AUB since the early 90s and was the lead surgeon, after which he spearheaded the efforts to recruit Dr. Issam El-Rassi to the Cardiothoracic Division at AUBMC in 2013.

Dr. Obeid was trained in Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at Christ Hospital and Medical Center Oak Lawn, Illinois, and completed his training in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, in Cleveland. Since joining the AUBMC, he has performed thousands of cardiac surgeries. Dr. Obeid is a well-known surgeon in the region, and has vast experience in open and closed-heart heart surgery for Adult Cardiac Diseases and Congenital Heart Anomalies, Lung Surgery, Esophageal Surgery, Chest Wall and Thoracic Aortic Surgery.