Successful open heart surgery

(Baonghean) - Recently, Nghe An General Hospital successfully performed the first 4 open heart surgeries. This is a big step forward for the Hospital as well as the provincial health sector in applying advanced techniques in treatment, aiming to build Nghe An into a high-tech medical center of the North Central provinces.

The first open heart surgery was performed at 9:00 a.m. on May 16, 2012, the patient was Tran Thi Phuc, 9 years old, in Luu Son commune, Do Luong district. Phuc had a secundum atrial septal defect - one of the forms of congenital heart defects, and was scheduled for surgery to patch the defect. The surgery lasted 2 hours, with the guidance of technology transfer from doctors at Hanoi Heart Hospital, the surgical team from Nghe An General Hospital successfully performed the surgery. Up to now, Phuc's health has recovered well and is gradually stabilizing.

Open heart surgery for Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang.

The implementation of open heart surgery at the Provincial General Hospital is an important breakthrough in developing technical expertise, increasing opportunities, improving the quality of life for children with congenital heart disease, increasing the opportunity to become mothers for women with heart disease. As of May 19, 2012, the Hospital has successfully performed 4 surgeries (out of a total of 6 planned surgeries), in which the youngest patient was 11 months old, weighing 8 kg, the oldest was 9 years old.

Doctor Nguyen Danh Linh - Director of Nghe An General Hospital said: "Open heart surgery requires professional qualifications as well as many related factors to be performed accurately, otherwise the danger to the patient's life will be very high. The hospital has had 4 years of preparation to approach open heart surgery with investment in human resource training projects, upgrading and investing in equipment and facilities... With the help of technology transfer from Hanoi Heart Hospital, Nghe An General Hospital is now qualified to perform open heart surgery, treating diseases such as: atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect or heart valve replacement".

It is known that most families with children with congenital heart defects who are scheduled for surgery are in extremely difficult circumstances. Therefore, the 6 cases of children with congenital heart defects who have had and will have surgery this time have had all costs sponsored by the Provincial Children's Fund through a fundraising source.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Van in Thanh Hung, Thanh Chuong - mother of Nguyen Huu Linh, 6 years old, who is preparing for surgery, said: "He was diagnosed with heart disease at 8 months old, the family took him to Hanoi many times for examination and monitoring, each trip was very expensive, including food and accommodation, about 3-5 million VND. This time, the Provincial Children's Support Fund took care of all the expenses for him, the family was extremely happy, because the total cost of 48 million VND (of which the insurance paid 16 million VND) was beyond the family's ability."

Doctor Nguyen Duc Vuong - Deputy Head of the General Planning Department, Nghe An General Hospital - in charge of transferring open heart surgery techniques this time said: "In this surgery, the hospital will operate on 6 children, the second surgery is expected to take place in early June and the third surgery is in early September. Currently, the hospital's doctors and nurses are directly screening 6,000 students in the three districts of Thanh Chuong, Nghi Loc and Nam Dan; if any diseases are detected during the examination, the children will be brought back to the hospital for consultation and then the list of children will be sent to the Provincial Children's Support Fund and the call for sponsors and benefactors for surgery...".

Doctor Bui Dinh Long - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Health assessed: Along with the difficult techniques that the General Hospital of Friendship has performed such as interventional cardiology, internal cardiology, the successful open heart surgery creates momentum for the increasingly strong development of Nghe An's health sector in the treatment of cardiovascular patients, opening a new path for the establishment of the North Central Cardiovascular Center in the near future. Nghe An will be a facility for re-examination and periodic monitoring for patients who have had surgery at central hospitals, reducing the burden of travel for people as well as reducing the load on upper levels.

Thanh Chung - Tu Thanh