Daily Times

“Nothing is more rewarding than saving the life of a human being” said a 23-year-old patient Bhero Lal who was admitted at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) at Mithi, Tharparkar.

Bhero Lal while resting in a ward remarked “I don’t feel like being discharged from the hospital because of the facilities provided here. I am a common person and I don’t support any political party but when I was rushed to the hospital I faced no discrimination.”

Attendants of the patients admitted at NICVD told Daily Times that the facility was the best gift from Sindh government to the people. Praising the NICVD the attendants said that ensuring the provision of specialized heart care facilities to the rural population was a great initiative.

Another patient Shahid Abbas said that a few days ago he felt a slight ache in heart and he was taken to NICVD Mithi where he was treated and discharged after being consulted.

“I was thinking that there is no clinic for curing cardiovascular diseases, but when I opened my eyes at the local hospital , I was being treated by experienced doctors in a well-equipped emergency ward. I felt like I was at a big private hospital in Karachi,” Shahid Abbas who works at Misri Shah Reverse Osmosis (RO) Plant told Daily Times.

According to Bharat Kumar Administrator of NICVD the centre received procedures on a total of 937 patients. The procedures included 52 angiographies and 18 angioplasty surgeries. He added that these patients had been discharged after they had recovered.

“No patient up till now has been sent to Karachi’s hospital. All the patients had access to quality treatment, advanced diagnosis, 24×7 cardiac emergency facilities, adult and paediatric cardiology, echocardiography services, coronary artery angioplasty facilities and angiographies. Internationally and locally trained cardiologists, paramedical staff and technicians treated the patients free of cost,” said Kumar.

Kumar informed Daily Times that there were 12 beds in the emergency ward and 55 beds in other wards. He said that NICVD was offering good medical care to the people of Thar.

Bharat Kumar added that NICVD’s vision was based on providing full treatment to patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases. He said that NICVD aimed to save as many lives as it could.

NICVD’s satellite centre in Mithi, called “Shamsul Arfeen Memon Cardiac Centre” was named after Shamsul Arfeen Memon, an activist of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) from Diplo. Memon, a heart patient, had died on the way to hospital.

Six other cardiac satellite centres were established at Larkana, Tando Muhammad Khan, Hyderabad, Sehwan, Sukkur and Nawabshah during last the last year.

Published in Daily Times, June 13^th 2018.