Privately-run ADK Hospital has again gone down in history by successfully performing the first open-heart surgery in the Maldives.
The valve replacement surgery was performed last Saturday, on a 25-year-old mother of three hailing from a northern island.
ADK's cardiac team was led by the renowned local surgeon, Dr. Mohamed Shafiu, who had only shortly before made headlines when the hospital performed the first coronary bypass surgery in Maldives just last week Wednesday.
Regarding the landmark operation, Dr. Shafiu stated that the patient had first consulted doctors upon suspecting that she had a cardiac problem. He revealed that she had been suffering from a damaged heart valve, and thus her heart was unable to adequately pump blood around her body.
"When she was brought here, her condition required an immediate operation," said Dr. Shafiu, explaining that her heart valve could have only been replaced by an open-heart surgery. "But we were able to complete the surgery successfully."
Dr. Shafiu highlighted that while operations such as coronary bypass could be performed via less-intrusive procedures, major operations such as open-heart surgery, which involves opening the patient's chest wall and connecting the exposed heart to a heart-lung bypass machine, are exponentially more delicate and high-risk.
"And that's why this is another great achievement for us, one that we are extremely proud of," he said.
According to ADK Hospital, the open-heart surgery patient is now recovering and well.
Dr. Shafiu declared that Wednesday's coronary bypass surgery and Saturday's open-heart surgery were both testimonies to ADK's capability and capacity to perform major heart surgeries. The only operation still out of reach, according to the doctor, is heart transplantation.
"But that's what we're aiming to reach in the future, with God's Will."
The first open-heart surgery in the Maldives comes more than 60 years after the world's first documented open-heart surgery performed in Canada.
Following ADK's historic coronary bypass surgery and open-heart surgery, the hospital's Managing Director Ahmed Afaal celebrated the landmark progress made in the Maldives' health sector, and guaranteed that similar surgeries will be performed successfully in the future as well.
ADK Hospital opened its state-of-the-art catheterization laboratory or 'cath lab', which features three operation theatres for open-heart surgeries, on March 15 this year.
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