Who is Carlo Dufour
Carlo Dufour is the President of the Scientific Committee of Flying Angels Foundation
At the IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini he is the Director of Hematology and of the Hemato-Oncology Department.
At the European Hematology Association (EHA) he is Chair of the Scientific Working Group, Granulocytes and Constitutional Marrow Failure Disorders and of the Guidelines Committee
Carlo Dufour and medicine
We can say that Carlo Dufour's path in medicine began when he was 12 years old..
It was in fact in 1969, when Barnard had his first heart transplant, that he decided he wanted to do his part, become a doctor and find a cure for cancer. An ambitious goal, but one that he has been able to honor with a great career and a fundamental contribution at an international level in care and prevention.
Thanks to the support of theOspedale Giannina Gaslini di Genova where he has worked for more than 30 years, Carlo Dufour has been able to grow professionally and take on the challenges that were posed to him.
His first steps in medicine, in fact, were in the field of Pediatrics, more specifically in neonatology, to then focus on pediatric gastroenterology and, subsequently in ematology-oncology, a branch that represented a significant challenge because it was a nascent discipline. Carlo Dufour accepted this challenge not without fear but with the usual determination, quickly becoming a point of reference in the Italian and international panorama.
Carlo Dufour and Flying Angels Foundation
In 2012, while Dr. Dufour was facing new big change in his medical career, moving more and more towards research by becoming Director of the Clinical and Experimental Hematology Unit – he was asked to become President of the Scientific Committee of the nascent Flying Angels Foundation..
Dr. Dufour immediately accepted enthusiastically, committing himself to involving other doctors from Gaslini, but not only, as members of the Scientific Committee. In cascade, Dr. Francesco Santoro, Cardiac Surgeon of the U.O.C Cardiovascular Surgery and Piero Buffa, now retired, former Head of the U.O.C. Pediatric Surgery were involved. Also in Genoa, but from theGalliera Hospital, Dr. Carlo Mosci, Director of the S.C. Ophthalmology Oncology, was added.
Dr. Dufour thus describes the creation of the Scientific Committee of Flying Angels Foundation:
Carlo Dufour's testimony on the birth of the Scientific Committee
For Flying Angels , the contribution of Carlo Dufour and the entire Scientific Committee has been fundamental since the very beginning to rationalize all the processes and documents needed to evaluate the cases and thus give foundations to the Mission. Over time, moreover, the Scientific Committee has highlighted needs not taken into consideration at first, very important for the well-being of the children involved, such as the need to travel with a companion, often the mother.
Flying Angels children at the Giannina Gaslini Institute and in international cooperation.
Over the years, many children from the Flying Angels Foundation have flown to the Gaslini Hospital in Genoa to find the care they urgently needed. In 2012, the year our Foundation was founded, many children from all over the world sought help inDr. Dufour’s area of expertise, both cancerous and non-cancerous blood diseasesToday, not only does the Hospital welcome more and more patients who cannot be treated in their country of origin, but it has also started international cooperation, development and teaching programs in which Dr. Dufour constantly takes part both at the hospital and at theHospital Pediátrico David Bernardino di Luanda in Angola for capacity building projects for medical personnel. Other international cooperation programs are supported by members of the Scientific Committee, including the cardiac surgeon Francesco Santoro, surgeons Piero Buffa and Marco Brunero, and neurologist Anne Falcou.
Some Flying Angels children in the memories of Dr. Dufour.
There are so many children we treat every year at the Gaslini Institute that it is difficult for me to remember their names but I cannot forget their faces or their stories. There was this refugee child in a Lebanese camp, the seventh of nine siblings with a serious bone marrow disease. When he arrived, I distinctly remember his big dark eyes full of questions. He was all dressed to the nines and had a fresh haircut , he seemed ready for a big party: his brother was the camp barber and had prepared him well because he wanted him to make a good impression. He had to undergo a bone marrow transplant which fortunately went well. I recently received news of him and he seems to be doing well and has fully recovered and is leading a normal life.
that he had immediately given to me as soon as he arrived.
A last child, coming from Somalia, had made us very apprehensive because he had to face a journey to the airport with makeshift means and we did not know if he would be able to arrive. For many children in Africa it is not unusual to have difficulties precisely in the routes. Sometimes, to get to the Hospital in Luanda, some patients even walk 40-50 km..
The clinical cases of the Flying Angels children entrusted to Dr. Dufour.
Each doctor of the Scientific Committee is a referent in the evaluation of cases for their specialization. Dr. Carlo Dufour deals with General Medicine cases and, of course, diseases of the Hematological-Oncological Area. Among the children of Flying Angels, the cases he manages are naturally leukemia with and without bone marrow transplant, severe aplastic anemia, neuroblastoma, il neuroblastoma and rarer pathologies such as constitutional bone marrow failure and and Erythropoietic Porphyria..
Many years have passed since that decision he made as a child, but the same determination continues to accompany Carlo Dufour even today.
For our Foundation, Dr. Dufour is certainly a point of reference ma anche but also a great companion in adventure because great challenges – as he himself states – create community, closeness – sharing.
We talked about Carlo Dufour here too
