Operation Open Heart

On Saturday night’s fundraising dinner, Johnson shared that OOH has successfully invested in the training of local specialists overseas and in the country.

“We will work with the University of Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Adventist University to develop a Cardio Scholarship Program, for medical students to who wish to aim to become specialists in the field of Cardiac studies,” she stated.

Among the cardiologist surgeons, the only female cardiologist was recognized, as well as Pediatric Cardiologist, Intervention cardiologists, upcoming cardiothoracic surgeon.

The OOH has been in operation for 30 years now.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Member for Moresby South, Justin Tkatchenko, as the patron of the operation open heart acknowledged all who have participated along the years.

“Firstly I’d like to thank one of the originators pioneer organizers for Operation Open Heart and that is Cathy Johnson.

The OOH has been in operation for 30 years now.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Member for Moresby South, Justin Tkatchenko, as the patron of the operation open heart acknowledged all who have participated along the years.

“Firstly I’d like to thank one of the originators pioneer organizers for Operation Open Heart and that is Cathy Johnson.

Present at the event was OOH program’s first patient to undergo operation heart surgery on Sunday 16^th February, 2020, was Faustina Jerome (18) accompanied by her father - Linus Jerome and elder sister- Fatima Jerome.

Faustina is from a remote area of Dasima in the Esa’ala district of Milne Bay Province. She completed her grade 8 in 2017 but was taken out of school due to her heart condition.

A team of 12, led by coordinator Dr Darren Wolfers, arrived in Port Moresby today ahead of the operation which will commence on Sunday.

The annual lifesaving cardiac operation open heart saw an advance team of four nurses arrive in the country early this week to conduct training with the local nurses.

Two children have been scheduled to go under the knife on Sunday. Operations will run through to Friday, August 3.

Russell Lee, project coordinator of Open Heart International, says this is an important area that needs focus on.

Over the years of bringing the Operation Open Heart into PNG, Lee observes gaps in this field which can help a lot if addressed.

To make his point, he elaborated that with a surgery such as an open heart case, high technical equipment are used.

But in PNG, where heat and humidity and power fluctuations are common, maintenance of these equipment is really important.

He said in the past, any money donated was used to buy equipment to assist with the surgery.

In fact, OOH started in the country in 1993, and has since grown tremendously, says Lee.

“It’s exciting because we’re getting towards the time where the local team is doing closed heart surgeries on their own and will soon make a step towards making open heart surgery on their own,” he said.

He added that the idea now is to help PNG doctors and nurses to get additional training with the skills to do their job.

Following the end of a successful one week operation, OOH patron and Sports Minister, Justin Tkatchenko said since its inception over 20 years ago, OOH has produced fantastic results with over 1,000 successful operations.

Tkatchenko highlighted that OOH raises about K1 million each year from fundraising events and receives support from business houses and organisations.

He made reference to the PNG National Government and Australian Government that have also always contributed to this worthy course.

The patients, all adults, include five females and four males from all over Papua New Guinea.

The patients traveled from as far as Wewak, Goroka, Mt Hagen, Lae, Chimbu and Moresby.

The one week operation involved local staff assisted by 10 medical staff from the National Heart Centre Singapore.

The cost for the surgeries has been fully paid by the OOH through its fundraising events and the responsibility of provincial hospitals to send the patient and guardian to Moresby for the operation.

The annual lifesaving medical operation that gives Papua New Guineans a second chance to life will likely be deferred to another date.

Acting Chief Migration Officer Solomon Kantha said the authority was only informed to facilitate the issuance of visas for the doctors and nurses two weeks ago.

“The process is that OOH has to write to us, providing us the details and endorsing particulars of the foreign volunteer doctors that would be performing these operations.