The lifesaving Operation Open Heart (OOH) has carried out surgery on only 14 patients this year due to the university unrest, says a medical officer.
OOH launched its annual program this year to carry out surgery operations four times in one year.
The annual operation in the past carries out surgery on over 50 patients every year.
OOH cardiothoracic and anaesthesiologist Dr Arvin Karu confirmed that this has not eventuated this year, with only the first operation that took place in February.
This operation was carried out with the help of the Australian team where 10 children successfully underwent it.
Dr Karu said the open heart surgery for adults, scheduled in April with the help of the Singapore team, was cancelled due to the unrest.
He said they only did two cases when the Singapore team had to be recalled to their country for safety reasons.
Dr Karu added that, unfortunately those who need open heart surgery will have to wait until February next year.
The national team is still doing the closed heart operations and the pacemakers cases.
They’ve done about 10 closed heart operations for children and 30 pacemaker cases for adults, which are done on a weekly basis with two cases every week.
Caption: File Picture of the operation done in February.