Second Round of Open Heart Surgeries Begin at Children’s Heart Hospital
“We are now doing our second round of surgeries by a team of leading surgeons and professionals from Sai Sanjeevani India as part of the Foundation’s Gift of Life free heart surgeries project,” Dr Kurpali said.
Wednesday 03 August 2022 | 16:58
Surgeons and support medical professionals from the Sanjeevani Hospital who were brought in by the Sai Prema Foundation performing open heart surgery.
A 21-member team of surgeons and support medical professionals from the Sanjeevani Hospital in India are in Fiji to operate on children suffering from congenital heart disease.
The team brought in by the Sai Prema Foundation Fiji intend to operate on 25 to 30 children with congenital heart disease while they are at the Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Hospital this week.
Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Hospital director Dr Krupali Tappoo said the team was the second team to operate from the heart hospital following the team of surgeons and Paediatric Cardiac specialists from the United States and Australia that carried out the first set of 30 heart surgeries earlier this year.
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“We are now doing our second round of surgeries by a team of leading surgeons and professionals from Sai Sanjeevani India as part of the Foundation’s Gift of Life free heart surgeries project,” Dr Kurpali said.
She added that the Sanjeevani India surgical team led by head surgeon Dr Krishna Manohar had already performed 18 life-saving surgeries since last Friday and the surgeries would continue for the next few days.
“Before commencement of these surgeries, extensive heart screenings were conducted at the Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Screening Centre by leading paediatric cardiologist from Sai Sanjeevani India Dr Yogesh Sathe.”
“A heart screening visit was also made by the team to Labasa and Nabouwalu where, in a short span of three days, 189 cases were screened resulting in 18 cases of Congenital Heart disease being detected.”
She also revealed plans of expanding their reach to more children in the Pacific who needed to be operated on for congenital heart diseases.
“Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is a major problem affecting the children of Fiji and the Pacific. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately one per cent of all children born globally are affected by Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).”
“This equates to approximately 200 children born in Fiji each year and approximately 2,500 in the Pacific Island nations each year with CHD. The sad fact is that most children struggle to survive,” she said.
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