KARACHI: Tando Muhammad Khanuhamamd Khan on Saturday became the 4th city in Sindh to get the facility of open-heart surgery at its newly built National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) Satellite Centre, with cardiac surgeons announcing the first successful bypass surgery at the centre which is located in a remote district of Sindh.
A pediatric cardiology ward was also inaugurated by senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Syed Naveed Qamar, who vowed to transform the NICVD into one of the best cardiac hospitals in the country, saying that the new facility would provide cardiac treatment services to people of Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar and adjoining areas.
Accompanied by NICVD Executive Director Professor Nadeem Qamar, Chief of Surgery Fazle Rabbi, Professor Khawar Kazmi, NICVD Head of Anesthesia Professor Amin Khuwaja, Professor Najma Patel, local MPAs and PPP leaders, Syed Nadeem Qamar visited different wards and sections of the cardiac hospital and vowed to bring other health facilities at par with NICVD in Tando Muhammad Khan.
Terming availability of open-heart surgery and pediatric cardiac ward a good omen for residents of Tando Muhammad Khan and adjoining areas, Syed Naveed Qamar said people of this area could not even travel to Karachi for treatment of cardiac ailments but now they could avail state of the art cardiac treatment closer to their abodes.
Around 30,000 to 40,000 children are born with congenital heart disease or with defective hearts at the time of birth, but only a few hundred of them are diagnosed and manage to get their condition treated while thousands remain undiagnosed due to non-availability of heart health facilities in their area.
“Thousands of children in this area – from Tando Muhammad Khan to Thatta, Badin, Tharpakar and adjoining areas – are born with congenital heart disease and remain undiagnosed throughout their life, eventually dying without treatment. The opening of a pediatric cardiology ward in Tando Muhammad Khan would save thousands of lives of children,” NICVD Chief of Pediatric Cardiology Professor Najma Patel said.
She said that it was her dream to arrange diagnosis and treatment facilities for the children born in interior Sindh with holes in their heart and thanked Professor Nadeem Qamar for fulfilling her dream of a facility where poor of the poorest people could bring their children and avail free of charge cardiac treatment services in Tando Muhammad Khan.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Nadeem Qamar said it was the 3rd satellite after Sukkur and Larkana where the facility of open-heart surgery had been made available and added that soon facility of surgery would be made available to other satellite centres of the NICVD in the province.
“Our training programme is in full swing and soon we would be able to post permanent surgeons at each and every Satellite Center in Sindh where surgeries would be performed on a regular basis”, he said adding that NICVD surgeons had already performed over 100 successful heart surgeries at the NICVD with zero mortality during last one year.
