New heart centre up and running

By JAMIE HARO
PAPUA New Guinea’s first interventional cardiologist says people with heart problems can now seek help at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH).
Dr Weseng Boko said since an agreement was signed by Kumul Petroleum (KP), PMGH and the Health Department about 10 months ago, cardiac operations and treatment were carried out at the KP National Heart Centre.
“We have done angiograms (cardiac X-ray) and stents operations (inserting tubes to reopen blocked blood vessels around the heart) to almost 600 patients successfully,” Dr Boko said.
He said they treated patients with Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) or defective hearts – mainly in children – patients with a hole in their heart and patients with abnormal connection between the lower chambers of their heart.
“Out of the total, we’ve attended to 100 patients with normal cases, 400 had disease while 100 also had diseases but were complex cases.
“We also made history when we attended to one of the most complex cases, a patient experiencing cardiac blood clog.
“Instead of cutting the patient’s leg off, we decided to cut his big toe off and allow the blood to flow freely through his body.”
Dr Boko said the patient was well and walking freely now.
In addition, working along with colleague, Dr Noah Tapou, a pioneer cardiac surgeon and their team, they had undergone additional operations in the last two weeks.
“We conducted five invasive operations which included three PDAs, where the youngest was just 18 months old and two ASD cases (hole in their heart) where the oldest was about 60 years old.”
Dr Boko said people would spend far less because they need not to travel overseas for such treatment.
“People who are able to pay for these services are able to help the Heart Centre purchase equipment to help save more lives, especially those who have travelled in from the rural parts of the country to seek medical attention,” he said.
The formal announcement of the Heart Centre was made in the presence of PMGH chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi, director medical services Dr Kone Sobi, Dr Noah Tapou and KPHL executive general manager, corporate affairs, Luke Liria.