Marape visits heart patients

By LULU MARK
OPERATION Open Heart (OOH) patients at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) received a surprise visit from the Prime Minister’s wife Rachael Marape yesterday.
The OOH is an annual programme that is run in collaboration with the Open Heart International (OIH) team from Australia. The programme started in 1993 and this is its 28th visit.
PMGH cardiothoracic surgeon and OOH surgery coordinator Dr Noah Tapaua said 12 youngsters born with congenital heart diseases were listed to have surgery this year.
He said the OOH started on Sunday and as of yesterday, six patients were successfully operated on and were recovering in the wards.
Marape said her team heard about the OOH and decided to pay the patients, staff of PMGH and volunteers from Australia a visit.
“We brought gifts which is not much but we hope it will help the little ones in some way,” she said.
Marape said the children had been living with the condition since they were born and this was an important event in their lives.