Vision to save 200,000 children in 20 years

The plans are ready for the 10- storey state- of-the-art building costing Rs. 2 billion which will house little cardiac patients on four floors, the Medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on three floors, the Neonatal ICU on two floors and training facilities in critical care on the remaining floor.

It may seem a huge sum of money but when looking at the bigger picture it would help save the lives of 200,000 children in 20 years. Then a child’s life would have been saved at just Rs. 10,000, reiterates Dr. Duminda Samarasinghe.

The Cardiac Complex will comprise four dedicated operating theatres (OTs), a catheterization laboratory, a 36-bed ICU, a high dependency unit and wards.

Not only heart patients but also newborns and children with other critical illnesses will be treated in this building.

Giving the backdrop in which such a centre of excellence is needed, Dr. Samarasinghe says that Paediatric Cardiologists are stationed at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital, the Kurunegala Hospital, the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital and the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital. Children from all

The same sentiments about the wonder that is the heart team are expressed by Sushen, an IT expert who had lived abroad and had the means to take his little son to any centre of excellence across the world, be it Australia, Singapore, India, England or America. However, he had opted to get a device closure procedure done on his son’s tiny heart at the LRH.

“Mihipita devivaru” or ‘gods on earth’, is how these and numerous other parents who pass through the portals of the Paediatric Cardiac Unit, with heavy hearts but leave with joy as their children have got a new lease of life, describe the doctors.

While the team will remain in the very hearts of the children and families they have touched, over the country are referred to the LRH Paediatric Cardiac Unit for surgery and interventions as nowhere else are there Paediatric Cardiac Surgeons.

Currently, heart surgery on these children is performed in two cardiac operating theatres, which had earlier been general theatres refurbished about 10 years ago. Once the surgeries are done, these children are transferred to an 18-bed ICU.

A major issue is that the ICU beds are inadequate, points out Dr. Samarasinghe, explaining that only about 40% of children who need surgery can be accommodated. Meanwhile, even the OTs have not been custom-made for heart operations.

Pointing out why such centres of excellence cannot be built all over the country, Dr. Samarasinghe says that the current thinking is for expertise and skill to be concentrated at one centre, according to lessons learnt from other countries. A high-volume centre with better resources results in less morbidity and mortality

Citing the example of the United Kingdom, he adds that it has reduced the 11 Paediatric Cardiac Centres spread across the country to seven. worldwide recognition came last year when they were placed No. 1 in the ‘Cardiology Team of the Year’ category at the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) South Asia Awards.

Teamwork has been the secret of success of around 200 people including Consultant Paediatric Cardiologists, Consultant Paediatric Cardiac Surgeons, Consultant Anaesthetists, doctors, nurses and minor staff. Going beyond the call of duty and certainly not watching the clock to rush off to private practice, they ‘man’ and ‘woman’ LRH’s heart unit. (With plans underway to organize a major fund-raiser in a few weeks, please call: 0766411730 for information on how to support this project)