HYDERABAD, March 16: A team of doctors on Sunday successfully performed the first open heart surgery in a public hospital in Hyderabad, at the newly constructed Department of Invasive Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the Civil Hospital.

According to the chairperson of the Department of Cardiology of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Prof Dr Nazir Memon and the hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr Mohammad Waseem Shaikh the patient Zulqarnain is in a stable condition. He had been kept in the intensive care unit (CCU), they said.

A 10-member team of doctors including heart experts from Aga Khan University Hospital and LUMHS performed the surgery that took around four hours to complete.

The 53-year-old patient, a resident of Chotki Ghitti area, had been suffering from cardiac problems for the past five years. Prof Dr Nazir Memon said the patient’s two major arteries - left anterior descending (LAD) and obtuse marginal (OM) - were blocked.“The case was complicated but doctors did the operation successfully in the presence of senior AKU doctors who had a supporting role. Our surgeons including Dr Khuda Bux Sheikh and Dr Sohaib Khushik did the main job,” he said delightedly.

He said that Dr Shahid Sami conducted grafting of arteries while Dr Sheikh and Dr Khushik conducted harvesting that meant tearing open and closing the chest.

AKU doctors included dean of Cardiac Surgery Prof Dr Amanullah Memon and Dr Shahid Sami, who performed the main surgery, Dr Hasnat Chaudhry, Dr Khuda Bux Sheikh, assistant professor of LUMHS and Dr Sohaib Khushik, senior registrar of LUMHS.

The hospital had started angiography a year ago and would now start angioplasty following the first open heart surgery. The hospital management is likely to fix a day in a week for surgery.

The surgery was delayed due to unavailability of operation theatre and ICU facilities, which has been made available after construction of a three-bed ICU that is specifically meant for CCU and ready to accommodate patients.

The hospital management is in process of executing the project for Rs40 million ground-plus three storey cardiology building in the hospital premises.

The outgoing MS, Dr Khalid Qureshi, had made a significant contribution towards the completion of this department and he was confident that the ward would start working by the end of last year but it did not happen.

“I am really happy that the poor will not have to bear heavy expenses for surgeries in private hospitals. Hopefully, they will have the same treatment at their doorsteps from now onwards,” said Dr Khalid Qureshi.

The hospital charges Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 for angiography as compared to Rs12,000 Rs15,000 charged by private hospitals. The fees for cardiac surgery (bypass) has not yet been decided while private hospitals in Karachi charge Rs300,000 to Rs500,000 for the bypass.

“We have decided to form two committees to decide charges for surgeries that will most likely be kept at a nominal level because the poor patients visiting the public sector hospitals can not bear the heavy amount that is being charged by private sector hospitals,” said the MS.

He said that the hospital and the university would form two committees, one would be tasked with approaching philanthropists as the cardiac surgery had become quite expensive these days and the second committee would decide free of cost surgery to any deserving patient.

“The hospital will soon start valve replacement surgery after making arrangements because valves are too expensive as a stunt that is inserted into the vessels during this surgery costs around Rs125,000-Rs150,000,” he said.

He sounded confident the hospital administration would try its level best to charge only the cost of items used in surgeries.