Heartfelt appeal from life-giving Unit

Eight months on, the one and only Paediatric Cardiac Surgical Unit in the country located at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children in Colombo which has already performed 200 life-saving operations is seeking support to help the poorest of the poor. In a country where over 90% of the people can hardly make ends meet, the state health sector has been the only lifeline for the thousands of men, women and children, who simply cannot afford to go to private sector hospitals.

What the Heart Surgical Unit needs urgently is “consumables”, the stuff that can be used only once and have to be discarded after each individual heart operation.

“We do not accept money, but anyone who can lend a helping hand could select from a list of items that are running short. We prepare every week for the next and purchase and donate them. It will benefit a little child, desperately in need of heart surgery,” says Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Iresh Wijemanne. The list of suppliers of these consumables is also available for easy reference and purchase to fit the purse of any donor.

And the efforts of the paediatric heart team is not only evident from the pioneering open-heart surgery to correct the Transposition of the Great Arteries of 13-day-old Nipuna Nethranjana Tennekoon on October 1, a first in a state hospital, but also from the routine operations that are being performed day in, day out on children who are as young as one day. “Starting with basic operations now we have come to the stage where we are venturing into complex ones,” says Dr. Wijemanne.

The unit was set up on January 17, this year, seeing the acute need of children, as up to that time they had to be treated at the Cardiology Units run for adults at the National Hospital in Colombo or the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in Galle. “There were limitations,” says Dr. Wijemanne, explaining that now children are referred to the LRH Unit from the far corners of the land such as Jaffna, Batticaloa, Bandarawela, Moneragala, Puttalam, Polonnaruwa and Mannar.

Going back to the time before the LRH Heart Unit, he says that 2,500 new children with heart disease are detected yearly, of whom about 2,000 need surgical intervention. Those days, the private and state sector put together could deal with only about 750 patients. “So about 1,250 child patients with heart problems get added to the waiting list every year. If operated on time the children will be cured. If not the condition becomes acute and unfortunately some of them will die. This was a pointer to the necessity of the LRH Unit,” he says, adding that in the private sector a surgical intervention would cost around Rs. 250,000 or more.

“How many can afford this,” he asks. At the LRH Unit set up by the government at a cost of Rs. 500 million, every procedure is done free of charge. However, unlike some other disciplines of medicine, heart surgery is very expensive. Consumables such as canula, oxygenators, cardio-pulmonary tubing and medication to name a few, for each intervention would amount to about Rs. 75,000-100,000. The unit was supplied with three-months of stock by the Health Ministry when it opened and is now running with donations from people.

And those who have donated consumables range from top business establishments to the humble pavement hawker, according to Dr. Wijemanne. But they are running low on stocks and that’s why this appeal for help goes out from the Heart Unit. Those wishing to extend support may contact: Nishantha Sendanayaka, Coordinator of the Donation Programme on 0716272781 (mob), fax: 011-2691521 or e-mail: irewije@hotmail.com