23-member team expected to conduct about 20 free life-saving open-heart surgeries at Sai Sanjeevani Children's Hospital

A 23-member team of surgeons, doctors, nurses and specialists are here in the country from Australia to conduct about 20 free life-saving open-heart surgeries for the children of Fiji and the South Pacific at the Sai Sanjeevani Children's Hospital in Suva.

The hospital says majority of the surgical team members are from the Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane and accompanied by a few doctors and nurses from Papua New Guinea taking part in this surgical mission.

They say commencing from today, the team will perform free heart surgeries and will save fifteen to twenty precious hearts during the week.

Hospital Director Dr. Krupali Tappoo says the hospital is grateful to Healing Little Hearts Global Foundation for supporting this visit and helping the hospital achieve its mission of ensuring that every child born with a heart defect is given a “Give of Life” and that no child is left behind.

She says they are incredibly grateful to leading Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Prem Venugopal from Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane and his entire team for sacrificing their time to come to Fiji to operate upon our children and Fiji is so blessed to have such an experienced and skilled team here.

Dr. Tappoo says their visit will save the lives of many children who otherwise have no other means of treatment.

Since the official inauguration in April 2022, the Sai Sanjeevani Children's Hospital has saved the lives of 277 children and has conducted over 16,138 of Echocardiograms - all completely free of charge.

They say this would not have been possible without the support of visiting teams from around the world including the USA, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India and organisations such as Health in Kind Australia, Hearts4Kids New Zealand, National University Hospital Singapore and Sanjeevani Hospitals India.

Dr. Tappoo adds they are committed to saving the lives of the children of Fiji and the Pacific and invite everyone to join them in ensuring that our future generations are given the “Gift of Life” that they deserve.