Daily Times

Caretaker Health Minister Sadia Varik Rizvi, paid a surprise visit at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) on Monday.

The caretaker minister for health visited different sections of the hospital and expressed her satisfaction with the hospital. She was welcomed by Executive Director Mr. Nadeem Qamar.

Later in the day, Provincial Caretaker Minister Sadia Varik Rizvi congratulated the doctors at NICVD for performing the country’s first mechanical heart transplant surgery successfully.

Pakistan’s first successful mechanical heart transplant performed at NICVD

Pakistan’s first successful mechanical heart transplant surgery was performed on a 62 year old patient by a team of doctors at the National Institute of Cardio Vascular Diseases (NICVD) on Monday.

According to the details, 62-year-old Nafeesa Begum was the first patient in Pakistan to undergo this surgery and receive a mechanical heart transplant.

NICVD Administrator Dr Hameedullah Malik said that Nafeesa Begum’s heart was only 15 percent functional prior to the surgery but all her other organs were working fine.

The whole procedure was performed by Dr Pervez Chaudhry, who joined the NICVD team on the request of NICVD Head Dr Nadeem Qamar, along with his team that consists of eight experts.

Introducing mechanical heart transplant technology was an initiative taken by Qamar. “We had been working on structuring this department for about six months now,” Dr Malik added.

Dr Hameedullah Malik explained that a regular heart transplant involves the insertion of a new heart in the body but in a mechanical heart transplant, the organ is not replaced. “In fact the pumping mechanism is fixed by using a device. This device then pumps blood across the body,” he added.

Published in Daily Times, July 10^th 2018.