15-year-old with heart disease leaves for US

By MICHELLE AUAMOROMORO
A 15-YEAR-OLD girl diagnosed with a rare heart disease leaves for the US today to undergo an operation.
Freda Dumu was diagnosed with tetralogy of fallot (TOF) when she was 13.
TOF is a rare disease of the heart, according to Pacific International Hospital (PIH) cardiologist Dr Ronald Galicio.
Galicio said he had dealt with several heart diseases while working in the country over the last eight years, but this was his first encounter with TOF disease.
Dumu’s mother Doreen, said doctors had explained the disease to her as a “hole in the heart”.
Galicio further explained this by saying that Dumu had a hole in the septum that divided the heart, causing the blood from the right side of her heart to mix with the blood on the left side.
“There’s an abnormal connection between the left and the right, which is not supposed to be,” he said.
Galicio also said the tube through which the blood from the right side of her heart passed through to get to the left side was tied, restricting blood flow.
“It is quite a complex problem. There are four big problems which will be addressed when Freda goes through surgery,” PIH director Amyna Suitan said.
Dumu was referred to Australia for an operation by Port Moresby General Hospital when the disease was first discovered after a scan.
But her family did not have the K200,000 that was needed for the surgery.
However, in a press conference held yesterday at PIH, several partners who contributed in one way or another to assist Dumu, announced that she would be travelling with her mother to the US for the operation, and would be offered free treatment.