A medical doctor at NRH pleads for generous financial assistance towards the travel costs of six children to Fiji by July 1 to undergo life-saving surgeries
SIX children with congenital heart disease need generous financial support to undergo life-saving surgeries at the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Hospital in Fiji.
Dr Baddley Ludawane of the Department Pediatrics at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) who has been working tirelessly to make travelling arrangements for the children is racing against time to send them next month – July 1.
To save the children’s lives, he is appealing for donations of any amount to meet the airfares of the children.
In an interview with Solomon Star, Dr Ludawane said his appeal is basically to meet the airfares of six children with one parent or guardian each.
He said some families managed to meet their own traveling costs but it is important that each of the six children must be accompanied by one parent or guardian each.
At the moment, Dr Ludawane is working on all traveling requirements for the children with the Immigration Department to get their passports processed in time for the life-saving trip.
He said whilst he issued the appeal, an arrangement has been made with local Solomon Islanders based in Fiji to offer support for the children whilst there for medical treatment.
Dr Ludawane said so far, nine children underwent free heart surgeries in Fiji and had returned home and are all recovering well.
The first child who underwent free surgery at the Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital did so in early February this year, whilst eight of them had theirs in April.
Dr Ludawane said the latest six children need to be in Fiji on July 1 to make use of the free surgery opportunity when the next team of specialists will be available in Fiji.
A team of specialists from the United States of America, Oman, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Sanieevani’s sister hospital in India usually avail themselves after every two months to offer life-saving surgeries for children with congenital heart disease.
To send a child and a guardian to Fiji for a heart surgery costs around SBD$25,000.
This means for the six children, SDB$150,000 is needed.
Early this week, a consultant Paediatician, Dr Maryanne Kora’ai, who is based in Fiji and is currently visiting the country, told Solomon Star that CHD is the most common congenital anomaly.
Dr Kora’ai said one in every 100 live births, have CHD.
“More than 50 per cent of these children need lifesaving surgeries before their first birthday. With some types of CHD, children would not grow into teenagers or adulthood if their defect is not corrected. Some are simple or minor that children might not need any intervention [at all],” she said.
“With Solomon Islands population now at more than 700,000 and birth rates of 30/1000, we are expecting to see more than 200 children born with CHD each year.
“Currently, the system in most of the developing countries is that children have an echocardiogram study which is the gold standard diagnostic investigation performed by a skilled and knowledgeable person only when they become symptomatic or sick. This is in comparison to developed countries where a foetal echocardiograph is performed and a CHD diagnosis is made even before the baby is born,” Dr Kora’ai said explained.
By CHARLES KADAMANA
