Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals has to date successfully operated on 12 patients who required open heart surgeries with the team of specialists as well as the convalescents encouraging others to be fearless to get this treatment.
By Kuda Pembere
The Hospital is the only health facility in Zimbabwe performing these open-heart surgeries.
Speaking on Wednesday at a press conference, PGH chief medical officer Dr Aspect Maunganidze described the resumption of open heart surgeries in the country as painful.
It has been two months of surgeries from 22 June when we started with our first patient after a hiatus of about five years where open heart surgery was not being done. So in terms of the population, many patients were not yet getting the services they needed. And coming to restart and reinitiate the process was not easy,” he said.
He noted that it was through the intervention of Government that these procedures resumed.
“As you know open heart surgeries are expensive so, it needs us to have all the monies for the equipment and sundries to be available for us by the specialists. So the process was long, but thankfully, the government came through and supported this program to be restarted,” Dr Maunganidze said.
Mr Maunganidze added, “Thankfully, also the expertise was there from the top. They were the ones who operated, anesthetist, the nurses who take care pre, during and post the operation, they make the program successful.
“All eyes were on the nation, its doctors, and patients as well for the operations to be successful. Those who were thinking the program would fail were put to shame, so I would like to thank the specialists and patients for their work.”
He said it was important to expand the provision of these services.
“When we restart this type of surgery, a lot of people who want these operations but only a few can be done at a time. This means we have to expand the services, expand the teams and I am glad the two months should have been learning curve where our surgeons and anesthetists have been honing their skills to deliver for more patients,” he said. “And we hope Parirenyatwa becomes the primary centre where offshoots will sprout and that these surgeries can be done beyond the Hospital.”
Dr Maungaidze noted that skills retention needed to be improved.
“For it to be sustainable, it is very imperative that skills retention is improved. It is also imperative that the skills are imparted to others who can then take over so that every child born will be operated on timeously and live a long healthy life as others. After 12 surgeries, it became very important for us to review and see the patients who were operated on because I’m sure there are some who think that if this project came out on radio and TVs, it must have ended there,” he said.
He said this program is not a political gimmick.
“This is quite important because it was a pre-election era and everyone thinks it was a show. But this was not a gimmick and it continues to be a project that we intend for it to last long. For this to be sustainable, government will continue to inject funds for people to get these procedures. I am sure you will hear from the testimonies that you will hear, no one paid a single cent.
“This means someone was paying and in this regards government has been paying for the services and we thank the ministry, treasury and obviously the vision of our president so that no one is left behind,” Dr Maunganidze added.
Specialist cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon Dr Simukayi Machawira said the majority of patients they have performed these operations on need the removal of a tumor called left atrial myxoma.
“As the doctors and nurses we work with, having the desire to perform open heart surgeries, this resumption was made possible through government funding. We also want to thank the patients for consenting to the operations. We have done 12 open heart surgeries.
“We managed to remove the left atrial myxoma and some 10 persons we removed their valves, including one still in hospital who was involved in an accident where the airbag hitting the steering wheel. He had two holes in the heart, displacing the aortic valve from its original position. We successfully did the operation and he is in the ward. Another one we operated on Monday still in the ICU ward. The other one we did the removal of a myxoma,” he said.
Dr Machawira said that there were many who were on the waiting list who gave in to surgery-related fears and did not come for the procedures.
“We hope this program be rolled out to other hospitals across the nation. There are a lot of people out there compared to those we successfully did the operations, whom we invited but were afraid, and didn’t come for the operations. We encourage them to come. Others live in remote areas and could not come for the operations.
He urged the private sector to chip in and support these open heart surgeries.
“We also urge corporates to join the government in support to this program of open heart surgeries so that it spreads across the country. We also wish that the medical aid companies which often send people abroad for these open heart surgeries to support us as we now have specialists able to do this in Zimbabwe while putting the country on the global map,” Dr Machawira said.
Despite the operation coming out successful, a patient of the 12 succumbed to an intestinal infection.
