During his two-week stay, Professor Richard Mainwaring from Stanford Medicine Children’s Hospital will operate on four young patients at the Upper Silesian Child Health Center (GCZD) in Katowice, alongside local cardiac surgeons, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported.

He said at a press conference that the first surgery, a 14-hour procedure on an eight-month-old with pulmonary atresia and other heart defects, went well. The patient is now recovering in intensive care.

Mainwaring added that such intricate and rarely performed surgeries require the specialized expertise offered by Stanford.

Grzegorz Zalewski, a GCZD cardiologist, said that pulmonary atresia is a rare condition, and Polish hospitals have limited experience of it. About 30 children in Poland are born each year with rare heart defects, PAP reported.

“These are the most demanding procedures in cardiac surgery. So far, rarely performed, if at all, in Poland,” Zalewski said.

GCZD is the first center in the country to introduce a pulmonary artery reconstruction program. Though it has collaborated with Stanford for six years, this is the first time a Stanford surgeon has come to Poland.