On two week visit, Australian heart surgeons change 30 lives

Transcript

An Australian surgical team is hoping to improve the lives of about 30 people in Tonga during a two week visit to perform heart operations.

49 medical specialists volunteering for Open Heart International are working at Nuku'alofa's Vaiola Hospital, treating people suffering from rheumatic and congenital heart defects.

The project coordinator, Dr John Wallace, says the team took over three tonnes of equipment with them to perform procedures that aren't able to be performed in Tonga.

He told Jamie Tahana the procedures are life-changing.

JOHN WALLACE: These people would have little recourse to treatment but they have conditions that are potentially life threatening. What we do is we see the patients selected by Tongan doctors that may need surgery, and our cardiologists examine them. Then we choose those who really do need surgery and then our team operates and repairs the damaged valves in their heart.

JAMIE TAHANA: And this surgery, if it weren't for your group, would not be able to be done otherwise in Tonga?

JW: No, it's too specialised to be done in Tonga or in fact in any other country in the region outside Australia and New Zealand. The local doctors are very good at doing the groundwork -- finding the patients and selecting those -- but the actual surgery is very specialised.

JT: Does that make it difficult sort of facility wise and stuff?

JW: The facilities here are quite good, they have a new hospital that was built a few years ago by the Japanese government. We actually came here originally in the old hospital and we did operate there, but the facilities are a lot better now. We still have to bring a lot of equipment over, it's about three or three-and-a-half tonnes of equipment that Air New Zealand brings across for us.

JT: And so you've been doing this fairly regularly...

JW: Yes, it's every second year now. We've been coming back since I think it was 2008. So there's been a more than 20 year gap between the first two visits and the resumption of the programme.

JT: And how many would you say have been treated over that time?

JW: We do about 25 patients each visit. Last time, two years ago, we actually did 30 patients in the two weeks. So that's been happening.

JT: So these mostly children you're treating, what are their lives like before this treatment?

JW: Well there are two groups. There are are congenital heart diseases, like those with holes in the heart or abnormal vessels. They're usually pretty young because you have to fix those soon. Their life should be normal after those repairs although they would have been a little bit compromised. We try to get to them before it's causing any serious symptoms. The story is different for those with rheumatic heart disease, they can be up to middle age or more sometimes and some of our patients this time have been adults up to 40 or so. Many of them are children, but it's a disease that keeps damaging the heart every time it occurs. So they get rheumatic fever, they get some damage, and as it keeps happening ultimately the heart is severely damaged and in the end they probably wouldn't survive past middle age or perhaps even less.

JT: OK so quite significant procedures you're doing for these peoples' lives that they otherwise might not be able to have.

JW: Yeah, that's right. Many of them have had valve replacements because rheumatic heart disease predominantly damages heart valves and eventually renders them hardly functional at all, so they would end up very short of breath unable to do anything if they didn't have this surgery.

JT: How big's the team this year?

JW: I think the total is 49. They're not all in one group, we have two groups. Many people can only spare one week so we have one surgical group the first week and this weekend we'll change over to a second surgical group.

JT: 'Spare the time', so this is all voluntary?

JW: It's voluntary for all of the entire group, yes. It's a very rewarding thing, I think we'd have to say it's something that the team very much enjoys doing as well. They pay quite a lot of money to come because they pay their fares and money to cover the operation of the team. The Tongan government provides accommodation and pays for the heart valves, which are quite expensive. So it's a join effort, and without effort from every side it couldn't happen.