The operation was carried out at the Ferncrest Hospital's new theatre, which was recently opened by Health MEC Magome Masike.
The first ever heart operation in the North West province was done successfully in Rustenburg, the provincial health department said on Monday.
Spokesman Thapelo Lekgethwane said the operation was carried out at the Ferncrest Hospital's new theatre, which was recently officially opened by Health MEC Magome Masike. The hospital is situated in Tlhabane near Rustenburg.
The theatre was a partnership initiative between the North West department of health and Netcare. Lekgethwane said the operation was “open heart surgery for an atrial myxoma, which is a benign growth within one of the chambers of the heart called the atrium”. The growth had to be removed as it was affecting the hearts valve functioning. “The patient heart was opened to remove the growth.
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To do this the patient was put on a heart bypass machine to keep his blood circulation going whilst the cardiac surgeons worked to excise the myxoma,” said Lekgethwane. He said the patient was then taken to Rustenburg on Wednesday, and operated on late on Friday. “The patient is currently in stable condition and is kept for observation,” said Lekgethwane.
“This success is testimony to the fact that the province has managed to recruit and retain the best specialists there is. We will continue to work hard to retain them, recruit more and address the chronic challenge of health professionals especially the specialists,” said Masike, the MEC for health in a statement.
“It took more than six years for us to be here today. When we started negotiations with Netcare, I had in my mind the urgent need to save the lives of our people, which is more important than anything else. I said we needed state of the art facilities to deal with emergencies. “It is hardly a few months after I said those words that we do our first ever heart transplant in the province,” said Masike.
The clinicians involved in the operation were Dr Babu Kurian, Dr Kekana (cardiac surgeon) and Dr Ngobeni (the anaesthetist). “I also want send special congratulations to Dr Jithan Koshy who tirelessly and quietly worked with the hospital and the provincial management to get the Service Level Agreement signed and led all the arrangements for Friday's surgery.
“The Netcare management team and our Head of Clinical Services Dr Andrew Robinson also deserve special mention for the contribution they made.
It was all a team effort and proves that working together we can achieve a lot in our quest for delivery of quality health care services to our people.”