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CHI undertakes five more open heart surgeries

Mar 08, 2010 News

– hopes to shorten waiting list this year

In an attempt to reduce the ever-mounting list of patients who require cardiac operations, the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI) for the first time facilitated a total of five open heart surgeries at the weekend.

Headed by renowned Cardiac Surgeon, Dr. Gary Stephens, the operations, which included four bypasses and one valve replacement, have all yielded successful results. Up to yesterday the patients were resting comfortably in the CHI recovery room.

The weekend operations represented the first set of surgeries that have been conducted at the heart facility for this year.

Last year, approximately 20 operations were undertaken under the guidance of Dr. Stephens at the Georgetown Public Hospital-based facility.

But according to Dr Stephens, “it doesn’t matter how many we are able to do, we still have a list of at least 30 patients in-waiting at a time.” And another 13 patients were added to the ever growing list following a process of screening that was also undertaken this past weekend. Those who were screened are expected to be among the next batch of patients to be operated on, the Cardiac Surgeon revealed yesterday.

But with renewed efforts geared at consolidation this year, Dr Stephens is optimistic that CHI will be able to do more surgeries and by extension reduce the number of clients in need of operations.

“Right now we would like to take what we have and make it better thereby increasing our ability to deliver to our clients.” With a strengthened capacity, Dr Stephens said that it is his expectation that CHI will this year be able to triple the amount of operations that were undertaken last year.

The capabilities of CHI have been notably improved recently with the addition of Interventional Cardiologist, Dr Pratik Soni, who according to Dr. Stephens has been undertaking angioplasty procedure on an almost daily basis.

In addition to Dr Soni’s expertise, CHI has also been benefiting from the capabilities of Board Certified Internist, Dr Ghansham Singh. Dr Singh was a local practising Doctor before he migrated some years ago to the United States and sought to upgrade himself. He is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Cornell University in the United States, and like Dr Soni, has also decided to return here to render his service to CHI at the request of Dr Stephens.

“I am satisfied with what they are doing here and I think that Dr Soni of course has improved our ability to better deliver heart care and this is a good thing,” Dr Stephens added.

And while there may have been some reluctance as it relates to the utilisation of the service offered by CHI, Dr Stephens is confident that Dr Soni’s recent interventions on popular television owner Chandra Narine Sharma and Assistant Police Commissioner Balram Persaud have helped to boost the credibility of CHI. “I am hoping that people feel comfortable coming here. We think we deliver good care and hopefully with these people, more people will feel more inclined to come.”

Meanwhile, CHI just recently welcomed the return of fully trained Perfusionist, Dr Karen Pereira. However, the Perfusionist will require needful support in the short term before her newly acquired skills could be fully utilised, Dr Stephens noted. A Perfusionist, also known as a Clinical Perfusionist, is a trained health professional who operates the heart-lung machine during cardiac surgery and other surgeries that require cardiopulmonary bypass.

Dr. Pereira’s training comes at a time when efforts are being made to increase the number of skilled Guyanese that operate within the confines of CHI.

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