Jale Daucakacaka 
The youngest patient to have undergone heart surgery last week at the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital in Suva was an eight-week old baby.
This was revealed by Hospital Director, Dr Krupali Tappoo as a team of surgeons and medical professional from Singapore carried out operations over the past week.
Dr Tappoo says the team has so far successfully operated on 11 patients over the past week, with the latest discharge today being eight-month old Vyom Chand, who was seen off today by Health Minister Dr Atonio Lalabalavu and hospital staff.
“A lot of these surgeries are very long and complicated, some take about four to five hours. Some of the cases we had have been quite complicated so when they are doing bigger cases, they can’t do more than two in a day. We’re seeing that as our hospital is progressing, we’re seeing children with more complex heart issues, some of which are what we call Tetralogy of Fallot where there are four abnormalities in the heart, so you can imagine that that takes time and it’s an open heart surgery as well.”
Health Minister Dr Atonio Lalabalavu [left] with Dr Krupali Tappoo [right]
Dr Tappoo says the surgical team from Singapore will carry out seven more operations next week before they leave our shores.
The team was brought in by Sai Prema Foundation Fiji as part of the Foundation’s Gift of Life free heart surgery project.
