Fifteen pediatric heart patients are ready to undergo Operations Open Heart (OOH) at the Port Moresby General Hospital in February 2017.
PMGH cardiothoracic surgeon and surgery coordinator, Dr Noah Tapaua says these patients had been screened and are ready for heart operations.
“The PMGH heart specialist team will be assisted by the Open Heart International team of Australian doctors,” Dr Tapaua says.
“The team visits PNG twice annually to perform operations mainly on children who have heart problems. Their two visits will be in February and August.
Dr Tapaua says since the establishment of the OOH 23 years ago, visiting doctors had been training local doctors who are now trained and capable of conducting most of the operations themselves.
“The visiting team members have become smaller and smaller because local doctors and nurses at PMGH are getting more skilled and can do the operations themselves,” says Dr Tapaua.
Dr Tapaua adds that PMGH also received two visits annually from another team of heart specialist from Singapore to perform operations on adult heart patients. The Singapore team will visit PMGH in April and October next year.
Dr Tapaua further states that the funding raised for this year went towards buying consumables, equipment and drugs and supporting doctors and nurses’ trainings to continue the heart operations at PMGH.