Six given new lease of life – for now

By LULU MARK
SIX people underwent life-saving open-heart surgeries at the Pacific International Hospital (PIH) this week – thanks to visiting doctors from India.
PIH chief executive officer Col Sandeep Shaligram said they had planned to perform nine surgeries but one patient pulled out and the other two needed a little more medical management before they could be operated on.
He said some of the cases were very complex. Hence the success of the programme was a result of a good team effort.
He said a lot of preparations were required including sourcing important consumables, medicine and items from abroad before calling the surgeons.
Shaligram said the cardiac specialist doctors arrived on Sunday morning and went straight into the operating theatre within an hour.
They left for home yesterday.
He said so far, 50 surgeries were done PIH’s cardiac surgery programme.
The experts included cardiac surgeons Dr Vishal Gupta and Dr Rajan Modi, and cardiac anesthetist Dr Narman Shastri. It was their eighth visit to Papua New Guinea.
Dr Modi said the staff at PIH were very skilled and knowledgeable in taking care of the patients before and after the surgeries.
“They are always in touch even when we are in India,” he said.
“The staff are always telling us that God is with you always and that gives us strength.”
He said people with heart diseases needed to go out of the country for surgeries and treatment which cost more.
Therefore, he said they felt that they should come to PIH and provide the heart services so that people spent less money.