New Cardiac Thoracic unit for LRCH soon

Turning a new leaf in the history of the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital (LRCH) a new Cardiac Thoracic Unit will be opened soon benefiting children with cardiac defects. The LRCH is the country's largest and South Asia's biggest children's hospital.

Consultant Anaesthetic Dr. Anoma Perera said that once the unit is fully equipped a maximum of two heart surgeries could be performed. We do not propose to perform major surgeries, as soon as we open the unit because everything at the unit is new," she said.

According to Dr. Perera, over 2,500 children are born with various cardiac complications, which could be corrected through surgery annually. She said that these children need surgery but if the ailment could not be corrected early the chances of survival are minimal. "They do not live long and before reaching adulthood they die", she added.

Paediatric cardiac surgeries are now performed at the Karapitiya and Sri Jayawardenapura hospitals and also at the Colombo National Hospital. Dr. Perera said that there was no proper data about children who need heart surgery but according to the data collected by the LRCH cardiologists there was a waiting list of 250 children to undergo cardiac surgeries.

However, Dr. Perera said that they need over 130 nurses to carry out surgery at the unit but were given only 40 nurses. "If we can get at least 100 nurses, the unit can function well," she said.

SS