Sai Prema expands heart services to adults

Sanjeevani Heart Hospital in Fiji will begin treating adult patients with cardiovascular procedures this month, extending a service that initially focused on free heart surgery for children.

Director Dr Kruppali Tappoo said the expansion followed the installation of a biplane catheterisation laboratory in April. The machine, which cost 3 million dollars, is the first of its kind in Fiji and the South Pacific.

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We have invested in this 3 million dollar machine which costs a lot of money and of course we want to help our children but we also need to help the adults.

The laboratory uses two C-shaped imaging arms, allowing specialists to perform certain heart procedures through a catheter. Tappoo said some children with heart defects may avoid open-heart surgery and the large chest scar associated with it.

She said the hospital also wanted to help adults with cardiovascular disease and heart attacks, many of whom were losing their struggle for life. Tappoo urged Fijians to take greater responsibility for their heart health and turn healthy-lifestyle advice into action.

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Some children will not even need open heart surgery; they’re not going to have a big scar on their chest.