I'm not usually a squeamish person, but watching a little baby's chest being opened with an electric saw and the heart exposed was more than I was prepared for. I am sure many people will also have this reaction. How did you feel when you watched some photographs of a team of cardiac surgeons and their medical staff at Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children (LRH) Colombo performing a heart surgery of a little baby, could even be described as being akin to performing miracles?
These Miracle persons are a team of Cardiac surgeons, Anaesthetists and Cardiologists who embrace revolutionary medical treatments that many of us never knew existed. Each day this team utilizes its extraordinary expertise in cutting-edge medical technology to change the lives of sick children and give them and their parents hope. They make possible what was previously thought impossible.
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| Dr. Mahendra Munasinghe, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon |
I was really impressed with the skills of these Surgeons and their medical staff at Lady Ridgeway Hospital . Then I was amazed when Dr. Mahendra Munasinghe, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon of the hospital briefed me about congenital heart disease and the service they provide at their unit in an exclusive interview with Sunday Times Free hold section.
Congenital heart disease are defects of the heart that occur during the formation of the foetal heart and the major blood vessels.
These kids are born with these defects, its not a fault of theirs and congenital heart disease is definitely not due to bad habits like in adults.
In Sri Lanka around 2.000 -2500 children are born every year with heart defects and around 1,400 -1,600 of this will need intervention for their heart lesions.
Some of these conditions are handled by the paediatric Cardiologists but about 1000 need either open or close heart surgery.
According to Dr. Mahendra Munasinghe over 90% of these could be cured and these children would reach adulthood without further complications with timely, and proper treatment.
Heart surgery specially paediatric heart surgery is a demanding, highly specialized and a difficult specialty in medicine.
It is a very expensive one as well. It is because of the huge initial investment to set up of high tech operating theatre and the Intensive care Unit. Each surgery also costs around Rs 100,000 for the medicines and consumables specially for the consumables for the heart lung machine including the artificial lung ( which is used to stop the heart during surgery ).
This investment is worth every cent spent, as these children when treated on time, go to to the society as normal, productive citizens. If they do not receive timely and proper treatment these sick children are a huge burden to their family , to the health system and to the country as a whole before they finally succumb to their potentially curable illness.
Therefore as a nation we have an obligation towards these children.
Paediatric heart surgery is not done commonly in the private hospitals as it is not profitable. The cost of a paediatric heart operation at a private hospital would be about Rs 400,000 but can run into millions and is unpredictable. For more than 99% of Sri lankans this is beyond their wildest dreams.
Before the Cardiothoracic unit at LRH started some paediatric heart surgeries were done at the National hospital Colombo and few at Karapitiya. A very very few who could afford got their operations done at private hospitals and overseas. The fate of majority were tragic.
LRH cardiothoracic unit was started in 2007 at a cost of Rs 500 million which was a long overdue. The main delay in starting this unit was lack of surgeons. In 2005 there were only 3 cardiothoracic surgeons in the government hospitals in Sri lanka !
Since its inception Cardiothoracic unit at LRH has performed more than 1300 heart surgeries, majority being very complex paediatric cardiac surgeries with excellent results which are comparable to the best centers in the world. This year with the addition of the High dependency unit ( intermediate ICU ) the LRH cardiothoracic unit has already performed more than 400 major heart surgeries and hope to top the 600 mark before the end of this year.
Most of the patients who are operated here are babies, few days, weeks or months old.
Large number of them are 2-10 kilograms in weight or even premature babies weighing only 800 grams !
Very often new born babies undergo surgery for paediatric cardiac emergencies at this unit.
Each of these operations takes at least 4 hours and often lasts 12 to 14 hours and average of 4 operations are done every day.
Did you know that these miracles happen in our country ?
LRH Cardiothoracic unit has 3 surgeons and is the only dedicated paediatric cardiothoracic unit in our country, therefore it is the only lifeline available to the children who are born with congenital heart disease in Sri Lanka.
What is most astonishing is that all these complex and expensive heart surgeries are done absolutely free at LRH.
Dr Munasinghe also warned of racketeers who are collecting money selling the good name of LRH. Citing a recent incident he said that when he was driving his car on Galle road he himself found a threewheeler fitted with loudspeakers and displaying a banner with a slogan highlighting a plight of a small child with a congenital heart disease, collecting Rs 1 million ! He noted that this particular child's operation has been already scheduled and was to be done soon at LRH absolutely free, as usual. This very very sad incidence is a common occurrence.
There a is long waiting list for operations, currently it is more than a thousand and it is growing day by day as more cases are detected and referred early from all over Sri Lankla because of the improving paediatric services in our health system.
Many children will not survive the long wait. If they are not treated in time some of these young lives would be prematurely ended before it reaches its prime, Dr. Munasinghe said.
Managing this huge waiting list is more difficult and more stressful than the most complex heart operation.
Our aim is to increase the number of successful children's heart operations performed annually and reach at least 1000 a year to ultimately eliminate the waiting lists. For this purpose we need more facilities, more operating theatres , ICU beds and more surgeons.
" Most of the needs for the unit are supplied by the Ministry of Health but very often consumables, instruments and medicines are in short supply, but we never trouble the parents or cancel surgery due to lack of consumables or medicines. We are so lucky that we somehow manage to get the urgent needs, sometimes with a lot of difficulty, through donors who very kindly come forward to help us to help these babies.
Thus the pediatric Cardiac Surgical Unit based at LRH is seeking public support to help save lives of the poor children who are desperately in need of heart surgery.
For this purpose there is a fund established called "SAVE A HEART AND SAVE A CHILD TRUST" with its accounts at the Peoples bank Borella branch
Savings 320 2001 0000 0749,
Current 320 1001 2000 0749
But if you wish to donate consumables such as sutures or special instruments , equipment or medicines directly you may contact the director's office LRH on 2689333 ext 307 or 071 6272781 |
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