Heart surgeons
mer Gauteng health spokesperson Prince Hamnca says children with heart problems wait for about four months to undergo surgery, unless it’s an emergency.
When paediatric specialists at the Johannesburg facility cannot accommodate children in need of heart surgery, they are often treated at other academic hospitals by the general cardiothoracic surgeons who normally operate on adults, a situation Lebethe confirms.
At George Mukhari Academic Hospital outside Pretoria, for instance, 17 children are awaiting heart surgery and will spend anything from three to 11 months waiting for their operations, Hamnca had told Bhekisisa before leaving the department in October.
But Hewitson warns it’s often better for these tiny patients, especially infants and toddlers, to be treated by surgeons who specialise in children. Some heart specialists can treat both adults and children.
But Hewitson cautions it’s best for young patients, especially infants and toddlers, to be seen by paediatric heart surgeons who are often better equipped to develop specialised treatment plans.
Part of the reason that South Africa has so few paediatric heart surgeons is that there are no registered training facilities for this discipline in the country, Hewitson explains. And although South Africa recognises cardiothoracic surgery as a discipline, it doesn’t yet formally acknowledge a paediatric specialisation within that field.
“There is thus no qualification obtainable in South Africa called ‘paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon’,” he says.
For these reasons, Hewitson says doctors are forced to go abroad for at least two years to train and qualify as paediatric heart surgeons under the watchful eye of senior specialists.
“Most of the respected paediatric cardiothoracic surgeons in the country, or those considered to be competent, have done time overseas in big paediatric units developing their skills,” Hewitson says.
But in Cape Town, the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital is currently training the country’s first homegrown paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon — a feat Hewitson believes wouldn’t have been possible without donor funding.
“The main reason that we are ahead of the rest of the country is that we have a very good donor infrastructure. We are dependent on private donations, which have kept us in a really good condition here in this hospital.” Hewitson says if the hospital can secure more steady streams of funding for the programme, it could expand.
Nkabinde’s son died in October after complications from his operation.