Sindh burdened by Congenital Heart Diseases

Tando Muhammad Khan, Sindh- As per statistics, around 30,000 to 40,000 children are born with a congenital heart defect but only a few hundreds of them get diagnosed and receive treated, whereas thousands remain undiagnosed due to unavailability of heart health facilities in their respective areas.

The Chief of Pediatric Cardiology, NICVD, Prof. Najma Patel said that thousands of children in Sindh, from Tando Muhammad Khan to Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar and its adjoining areas were born with congenital heart defects, and eventually died without acquiring treatment.

The recent opening of a Pediatric Cardiology Ward in Tando Muhammad Khan will work on saving thousands of lives of children suffering from such cardiac conditions.

Prof. Najma expressed her gratitude towards Prof. Nadeem Qamar for establishing a Pediatric Cardiac Facility within the Interior Sindh, where poor people could bring their children and avail free cardiac treatment.

Prof. Nadeem Qamar informed that the new ward was the 3^rd Satellite after Sukkur and Larkana where facility of open heart surgery had been made available. He added that the assigned surgeons of NICVD had already performed over 100 successful heart surgeries at NICVD with zero mortality rate, during the last one year.

According to Prof. Nadeem, they now have a team of 5 paediatric cardiac surgeons at NICVD, serving patients and by the time their 250-bedded pediatric unit would be completed, they would have one of the best pediatric surgery team in the world.

Chief of Surgery, NICVD, Prof. Fazle Rabbi informed that they had successfully operated upon a 52 year old patient at NICVD’s Satellite Center at Tando Muhammad Khan, who had been recovering well.

He also claimed that a successful training program was being run by them, whereby well-trained cardiac surgeons would be produced to be posted at the 8 satellite and cardiac centers of NICVD across Sindh.