Pacific International Hospital

A previous article incorrectly stated the date as January 8.

An official written statement released yesterday says late Ottio was critically ill when he was brought in by his guardians to the PIH emergency room at about 6pm on January 7, 2018.

He was transferred from the Gerehu Hospital where he was first presented.

The release states that the late Ottio appeared to be suffering from complications of a possible severe heat stroke.

President of the POMCA, Dean Ani, said the 2017/2018 season was supposed to resume this weekend but a decision was reached to defer it by another week.

“The round 10 draw will remain as it is with just a couple of slight adjustments,” he said.

“There are 2 more weekends before the finals. The men’s will be split next 2 weekends as they are a week ahead of the mixed division.

“This will enable finals in both competitions to commence 27 January 2018,” said Ani. 

Dr Sultan is the director at the Pacific International Hospital, where they are spearheading a program to eliminate avoidable blindness in the country.

Currently as it stands, PNG has the highest rates in the region – 5.6 percent adults over age 50 are blind.

The recent Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB 2017) in PNG identifies cataract and refractive error as the leading causes.

Laila Foundation and the Pacific International Hospital announced their partnership with Hebou PNG Barramundis and the City Pharmacy PNG Lewas today.

Players from the two cricket teams will go through comprehensive eye checks over the next week.

They will be the ambassadors to spread word about avoidable blindness.

Avoidable blindness is blindness that could have easily been avoided.

PNG has alarming statistics in this, with over 40,000 people unnecessarily blind.

This is to mark the launch of the outreach program to be rolled out in Papua New Guinea.

In hopes to reduce statistics of avoidable blindness in PNG, PIH has partnered with Laila Foundation to offer this service for free.

The team, through Laila Foundation, will be bringing in teams who provide high volume cataract surgery.

This project will be led by PIH ophthalmologist, Dr Amyna Sultan, and Dr Vivek Jairaj, consultant ophthalmologist.

According to Dr Sultan, the rural cataract outreach program should commence before the year ends.

Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eyeball and orbit.

The country has only 8 national ophthalmologists or eye specialists.

Given the total population of almost 8 million people, this means one ophthalmologist to a million people.

“And this is very alarming,” says ophthalmologist Dr Amyna Sultan, director of Pacific International Hospital.

She also offers lectures and assists in training ophthalmology residents at UPNG’s school of medicine.

His call comes a few days away from the annual Globeathon to End Women’s Cancers, which falls on September 24.

Sapuri acknowledged that the Pacific International Hospital was currently in talks with the government for a possible public-private partnership that will see a specialist in the country.

But he is adamant to keep reminding relevant authorities of the need.

“In the future, our encouragement is to make sure that government continues to invest in cancer cure so that we can have a good established radiotherapy in PNG.

From the internationally reputed SAL Hospital, Ahmedabad, India, Dr Anil Jain and his highly experienced team – Dr. Rajan Modi, Dr.Vishal Gupta and Dr Naman Sastri – successfully undertook seven complex surgeries at PIH.

In a statement, PIH said the team arrived in Port Moresby on September 5 and will be available till the 9^th.

“This is as per the plan for the next set of patients (eight so far) and to check up on these patients. All the patients were from different parts of Papua New Guinea,” said the Hospital.

Medical doctors at the Pacific International Hospital say it would have been a different story if Lagot had ignored the numbness in both arms.

Lagot was lifting heavy equipment when he experienced his first ever signs of heart attack.

"That's how it (heart attack) happens," Dr Suresh Venkita, cardiologist and medical director, PIH, explained on Wednesday.

Lagot said the feeling of numbness in both arms was present for a long while so without hesitation, he went to the hospital that same night.

“I thought it was a normal chest pain,” he recalls.

Patient is a 44-year-old mine worker from one of PNG’s biggest mines.

Alwas Lagot from East New Britain is a supervisor - asset protection at Lihir Mine in New Ireland Province.

He had suffered a massive heart attack last Thursday and was medivaced to PIH on Saturday.

Dr. Uthirapathy Nagarajan, PIH in-house interventional cardiologist, performed this incredible medical feature by successfully removing the clot and placing a stent in one of the major blood vessel of the heart that had almost 99% blockage.