Zim Reaches Open Heart Surgery Milestone

Patients who successfully underwent open-heart surgery pose with some of the doctors and nurses who helped them during the operation at an update meeting at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare yesterday. — Picture: Innocent Makawa

Maxwell Tapatapa

Herald Reporter

LOCAL doctors have demonstrated the country’s prowess and capacity to compete with the best in the world in offering open heart surgery following 12 successful surgeries out of 12 performed at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare since resumption in June. Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals stopped offering the surgery in 2018 and patients had to travel to South Africa, India and other countries for the complex procedure which is being performed for free at the moment. During an update meeting attended by health specialists, heart surgery patients and journalists following the resumption of open heart surgery, patients yesterday could not hide their joy following the successful operations. A 42-year-old woman, Ms Gladys Ngoshi, who suffered from heart problems for the past 34 years, narrated her ordeal. “I was diagnosed with a heart problem when I was eight-years-old. My face and stomach would become swollen. “I had two valves which were not working properly. In 2021 that’s when I had a heart attack and doctors told me that I was supposed to be operated on or else I would die,” said Ms Ngoshi. She said at first she was sceptical but doctors reassured her. ReadMore