Cardiac team off to save Fijian lives

Christine Gregor (from left), Neroli Harrison-Katene and Barbara Roberts are part of the medical team travelling to Fiji to perform cardiac surgery in Suva. Photo / Alan Gibson

Fijians with life-threatening heart conditions are to receive free treatment this week thanks to a mercy mission by 40 New Zealand health professionals.

Two cardiac surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and other health professionals have taken annual leave from their jobs to perform 25 operations in Fiji.

The group is part of a New Zealand-based charity, the Friends of Fiji Heart Foundation, that annually raises $270,000 for free medical care for impoverished patients in the islands.

The heart operations will extend the patients' lives by 15 to 20 years.

Foundation spokesman Deepak Pratap Singh said the operations were a last chance of life for many of the patients, some of whom are teenagers.

Such operations were not performed in Fiji, so patients with severe heart conditions had to travel to New Zealand or Australia at a cost of about $65,000.

"Once we operate on a person, it doesn't only affect them but the people that surround them. Some people we operate on are the only bread-winners in their house.

"Last year, I was approached by a nurse who said 'We've got a situation. There is a patient who has six kids and her husband is away for six months fishing.' So there was no one to look after the kids [while she had the operation].

"If this patient died, who would look after the kids if the dad is working overseas?"

The foundation's theatre nurses' co-ordinator, Barbara Roberts, said: "It's amazing to see these people up and walking a day after their surgery, and to be able to give them a new lease of life that they would never get otherwise.

"These people are very, very poor, most of them have had rheumatic fever. The foundation works very hard throughout the year to send us."

Ms Roberts said the team worked with hospital staff in Fiji and taught them about the operations.

"We try to involve at least two Fijian theatre nurses so they feel a part of our team.

"On the wards, the New Zealand nurses work alongside the Fijian nurses, so they get ongoing education about heart disease and how to treat patients," Roberts said.

"We work hard but it's very rewarding. You do it once and you just want to do it again."

The foundation - founded in 2006 by Auckland-based cardiac surgeon Parma Nand - takes about five tonnes of medical equipment to Fiji, including bypass and heart and lung machines.

The equipment will all be sent by air today.