CM hails 10k free child heart surgeries

Inaugurates new ICU at Children's Hospital Lahore, touring the facility and meeting children under treatment

LAHORE:

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has expressed gratitude over the successful free heart surgeries of more than 10,000 children from across the country under the Chief Minister Children Heart Surgery Programme.

The number of free heart surgeries performed for children from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was 425, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 250, federal area 107, Gilgit-Baltistan 34, Balochistan 28 and Sindh 27.

The chief minister also inaugurated a new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Children's Hospital Lahore. She toured the ICU and met children under treatment.

She attended a ceremony marking the completion of 10,000 surgeries under the programme.

Provincial Specialised Healthcare Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique said while the CM that 10,331 surgeries had been completed under the programme.

University of Child Health Sciences Vice Chancellor Masood Sadiq said around 50,000 children are born with heart diseases every year in Pakistan, of whom 25,000 require immediate surgery.

The chief minister increased the number of cardiac surgeons at the Children's Hospital to 12 and cardiac physicians to 34.

Through the Chief Minister Transplant Card, 800 cochlear and 200 bone marrow transplants for children have also been performed.