Doctor hails heart surgeries

 THE Operation Open Heart (OOH) team has been hailed a success in its 20th year. 

OOH coordinator Professor Nakapi Tefuarani said the operation has gained the country’s recognition in terms of the government’s K2 million annual funding. 

“This year, our own cardiac anaesthetist Dr Arvin Karu completed his cardiac anaesthetist exams which he started five years ago with training from cardiac doctors Mathew Crawford and Graham Nunn from the OOH team,” Tefuarani said.

“We are planning to bring in the OOH team of doctors on a regular basis so that our local doctors can have more exposure.

“Currently our local doctors are operating on closed heart cases and they have done exceptionally well. 

“Altogether for this year 44 patients have been operated on with 16 more closed-heart implications awaiting operation. 

“With the arrangements on trainings we are pursuing to have open heart operations on a daily basis.” 

Dr Mathew Crawford an anaesthetist who has been involved with the operation for the past 19 years, said many people looked down on closed-heart cases. 

“We must know that closed-heart operations require 50% of the work and the ones that have been done by our local doctors have been very successful compared to open heart operations,” Crawford said.

Karu encouraged young local doctors to join in pursuing their profession and grow with the cardiac team.