Al-Qalam 
By Ismail Suder
Taking a tour of the new space-age Cardiac and Endo-Vascular Cath Lab and Theatre that officially opened at Durban’s Ahmed Al-Kadi Private Hospital recently felt like being at the command centre of a rocket launch.
The glitzy state-of-the-art equipment, lined with a bank of sophisticated computers and monitors, makes the Ahmed Al-Kadi Private Hospital rank amongst the best in the world in terms of heart care.
Invited guests attended the launch of the new Cardiac and Endo-Vascular Cath Lab and Theatre, including the dedicated Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU).
Invited guests, largely from the medical fraternity – and Al-Qalam – joined a guided tour of the new facilities, which was described as “a landmark development in our journey of clinical excellence”.
Suraiya Vaizie, the hospital’s public relations management spokesperson, said the advanced unit represents ‘more than state-of-the-art technology’. “It reflects our unwavering commitment to Patient Obsession Service Excellence, where every innovation is driven by better outcomes, safer care, and a deeply human approach to healing”.
Ebrahim Asmal, CEO of Ahmed Al-Kadi Private Hospital, said: “This new Cardiac and Endo-Vascular Cath Lab, Theatre, and CICU marks a defining moment for AAK. It is an investment not only in advanced medical capability, but in our promise to our patients — that they will receive world-class cardiac care, delivered with compassion, dignity, and excellence. Everything we do is guided by our belief that patient comfort and outcomes come first.”
Guest speaker, Dr Ahmed Vachiat, a prominent specialist physician and cardiologist from Gauteng, said the opening of this cardiac Cath lab will change people’s lives.
“This hospital — and this Cath lab — came into existence because of visionaries pausing to reflect. Dr Ahmed Al Kadi, a cardiothoracic surgeon, asked himself a question that most people in his position never bother to ask: ‘What am I doing with what I have been given?’ That is the essence of reflection.
“I invite each of us, on this day, to reflect. Not on our achievements — those are real, and they are worth acknowledging, but on the gap. On the distance between the full weight of what we know and can do, and what we are currently deploying in service of others…this gap is an invitation.
“We use the word ‘philanthropy’ often, and sometimes carelessly. It can conjure images of gala dinners and naming rights. But authentic philanthropy — the kind that actually changes the lives of strangers — looks very different.
“It’s like a Cardiothoracic Surgeon, who could have spent his retirement in comfort, choosing instead to pour his energy, his resources, and his reputation into something that would outlive him — in a country he did not have to care about, for people who could not reciprocate the favour. Dr Ahmed Al Kadi is the inspiration behind this hospital. And yet the place his heart kept returning to was South Africa, this community.
“There is a concept in Islamic tradition — Amal Jariyah — a continuous, flowing charity. It describes an act whose benefit does not end when the giver stops giving, but continues to flow outward, long after the initial act. A well dug. A school was built. A child is educated. A hospital opened. The reward for such an act is said to continue for as long as the act continues to benefit others. Dr Al Kadi has dug a well. And today we opened the channel through which the water will flow to people who are thirsty.
“That is Dr Al Kadi. And this hospital — this Cath lab— is the evidence. We do not simply honour him with words today. We honour him by committing to carry this work forward with the same spirit. By asking ourselves: ‘what we are building with the expertise and influence we have been given.’
