Lone surgeon at NICVD in Karachi, as 15,000 children lose life battles every year
Prof Sohail Bangash performs 800 to 1,000 surgeries at cardiac facility annually
According to Prof Bangash, around 3,000 surgeries are performed on children born with congenital heart diseases in Pakistan. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS
KARACHI:
More than 15,000 children die every year in Pakistan due to cardiac disease. Despite that, Prof Dr Sohail Bangash is the only paediatric cardiac surgeon at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), which is the largest public-sector hospital in the Sindh-Balochistan region catering to cardiac care.
According to Prof Bangash, around 3,000 surgeries are performed on children born with congenital heart diseases (CHD) in Pakistan. Of these, he alone performs 800 to 1,000 at NICVD.
According to Prof Bangash, there are only 11 paediatric cardiac surgeons besides him in the entire country who perform surgeries at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi and other facilities in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan. The onus of cardiac care of children in the Sindh-Balochistan region, nonetheless, lies on NICVD as it is a public hospital.
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Meanwhile, Prof Dr Najma Patel is among the few paediatric cardiologists who run the out-patient department for children with CHD at NICVD. The diagnosis of children with CHD at the facility also takes time due to a large number of patients flocking Dr Patel's clinic. She conducts her OPD twice a week, attending to 250 children each day. It takes at least five follow-up visits with gaps of a few months to diagnose and refer a child with a heart condition for surgery.
Earlier, NICVD used to charge Rs50,000 for open heart surgery and Rs10,000 for closed heart surgery. However, they later started performing surgeries free-of-charge, which resulted in an increased inflow of patients. "We will raise the number of surgeries to 1,500 by next year as one surgeon has almost been trained at NICVD under me while another will return after training from Malaysia within six months," Prof Bangash told The Express Tribune. "Anyone can imagine how much we lack in performing cardiac surgeries on children due to lack of infrastructure and especially trained paediatric cardiac surgeons." He added that the NICVD's entire infrastructure has developed in the past eight years. Before that, he said, patients had to go to India for such surgeries.
NICVD Director Prof Nadeem Qamar reiterated how there is an acute shortage of surgeons at the facility. "I want to appeal to Pakistani paediatric cardiologists and surgeons serving abroad to return to the country and join NICVD to help provide relief to the long queues of patients."
Dr Qamar told The Express Tribune that currently they need at least five more surgeons to meet the needs of child patients at the facility. "A single surgeon is handling the large volume of patients coming from the entire Sindh, Balochistan and southern Punjab region as well as Afghanistan and Iran," he said.
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According to Dr Babar Hasan, Associate Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health and Services Line Chief of the children's hospital at AKUH, more than 60,000 children - one in every 100 infants born in Pakistan - are born with cardiovascular diseases every year, resulting in deaths of many infants and neonates without diagnosis and time-bound surgeries. He added that more than 15,000 children die of coronary disease every year as their disease is not diagnosed and treated.
"Health care is their right not a privilege and complicated diseases like CHD require concerted efforts," maintained Dr Hasan. "About 15,000 to 20,000 infants in Pakistan every year are [born in a] critical [condition] and require surgery or intervention in the first year of life. This can cost up to Rs500,000."
The plight of the sufferers
Thirteen-month-old Tanveer Ali's mother cradled him as she brought him out of the examination room of the only paediatric heart surgeon at NICVD. Ali was earlier diagnosed by a doctor in his hometown with ventricular septal defect, commonly known as a hole in the heart, 15 days after his birth.
His father, Muhammad Akram, who is a farmer from Sanghar district said during his previous five to six follow-up visits to Karachi with paediatric cardiologist Dr Najma Patel, he sold two cows and three goats for travel and daily expenses. "For this visit, I sold the gold of my wife worth Rs15,000," he shared. "However, my wife and I feel lucky that we have been given an appointment for the surgery of our son in August. Then we might forget all the miseries we have gone through during this one year."
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Another four-year-old child, Arman, is also suffering from a deadly condition. His parents hail from South Waziristan but the deadly disease forced them to move to Karachi to cope with back-to-back follow-up visits of their son.
"He had been diagnosed with a heart disease when he was just a year old and since then we have been visiting this hospital after every two to three months," said his father, Muhammad Mansoor, adding that he requires surgery. He has to wait till February next year for a free surgery at NICVD, he said.
Prison police constable Shabbir Leghari, a resident of Moro, kept coming to Karachi for at least four times last year in the hope of getting his 11-year-old son, Baharo, referred to Dr Bangash at NICVD. The stars were in his favour in February this year when he got an appointment for the repair of the hole in his son's heart for December this year. The reason conveyed to him by the hospital management for the 10-month-long waiting period was a long queue of patients.
More than 15,000 children die every year in Pakistan due to cardiac disease. Despite that, Prof Dr Sohail Bangash is the only paediatric cardiac surgeon at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), which is the largest public-sector hospital in the Sindh-Balochistan region catering to cardiac care.
According to Prof Bangash, around 3,000 surgeries are performed on children born with congenital heart diseases (CHD) in Pakistan. Of these, he alone performs 800 to 1,000 at NICVD.
According to Prof Bangash, there are only 11 paediatric cardiac surgeons besides him in the entire country who perform surgeries at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi and other facilities in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan. The onus of cardiac care of children in the Sindh-Balochistan region, nonetheless, lies on NICVD as it is a public hospital.
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Meanwhile, Prof Dr Najma Patel is among the few paediatric cardiologists who run the out-patient department for children with CHD at NICVD. The diagnosis of children with CHD at the facility also takes time due to a large number of patients flocking Dr Patel's clinic. She conducts her OPD twice a week, attending to 250 children each day. It takes at least five follow-up visits with gaps of a few months to diagnose and refer a child with a heart condition for surgery.
Earlier, NICVD used to charge Rs50,000 for open heart surgery and Rs10,000 for closed heart surgery. However, they later started performing surgeries free-of-charge, which resulted in an increased inflow of patients. "We will raise the number of surgeries to 1,500 by next year as one surgeon has almost been trained at NICVD under me while another will return after training from Malaysia within six months," Prof Bangash told The Express Tribune. "Anyone can imagine how much we lack in performing cardiac surgeries on children due to lack of infrastructure and especially trained paediatric cardiac surgeons." He added that the NICVD's entire infrastructure has developed in the past eight years. Before that, he said, patients had to go to India for such surgeries.
NICVD Director Prof Nadeem Qamar reiterated how there is an acute shortage of surgeons at the facility. "I want to appeal to Pakistani paediatric cardiologists and surgeons serving abroad to return to the country and join NICVD to help provide relief to the long queues of patients."
Dr Qamar told The Express Tribune that currently they need at least five more surgeons to meet the needs of child patients at the facility. "A single surgeon is handling the large volume of patients coming from the entire Sindh, Balochistan and southern Punjab region as well as Afghanistan and Iran," he said.
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According to Dr Babar Hasan, Associate Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health and Services Line Chief of the children's hospital at AKUH, more than 60,000 children - one in every 100 infants born in Pakistan - are born with cardiovascular diseases every year, resulting in deaths of many infants and neonates without diagnosis and time-bound surgeries. He added that more than 15,000 children die of coronary disease every year as their disease is not diagnosed and treated.
"Health care is their right not a privilege and complicated diseases like CHD require concerted efforts," maintained Dr Hasan. "About 15,000 to 20,000 infants in Pakistan every year are [born in a] critical [condition] and require surgery or intervention in the first year of life. This can cost up to Rs500,000."
The plight of the sufferers
Thirteen-month-old Tanveer Ali's mother cradled him as she brought him out of the examination room of the only paediatric heart surgeon at NICVD. Ali was earlier diagnosed by a doctor in his hometown with ventricular septal defect, commonly known as a hole in the heart, 15 days after his birth.
His father, Muhammad Akram, who is a farmer from Sanghar district said during his previous five to six follow-up visits to Karachi with paediatric cardiologist Dr Najma Patel, he sold two cows and three goats for travel and daily expenses. "For this visit, I sold the gold of my wife worth Rs15,000," he shared. "However, my wife and I feel lucky that we have been given an appointment for the surgery of our son in August. Then we might forget all the miseries we have gone through during this one year."
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Another four-year-old child, Arman, is also suffering from a deadly condition. His parents hail from South Waziristan but the deadly disease forced them to move to Karachi to cope with back-to-back follow-up visits of their son.
"He had been diagnosed with a heart disease when he was just a year old and since then we have been visiting this hospital after every two to three months," said his father, Muhammad Mansoor, adding that he requires surgery. He has to wait till February next year for a free surgery at NICVD, he said.
Prison police constable Shabbir Leghari, a resident of Moro, kept coming to Karachi for at least four times last year in the hope of getting his 11-year-old son, Baharo, referred to Dr Bangash at NICVD. The stars were in his favour in February this year when he got an appointment for the repair of the hole in his son's heart for December this year. The reason conveyed to him by the hospital management for the 10-month-long waiting period was a long queue of patients.