Kampala — DOCTORS from the Uganda Heart Institute on Monday operated upon their oldest patient, Elasito Ssebbowa.

Aged 102, Ssebbowa underwent an hour-long closed-heart operation by a four-man team of local cardiac surgeons to rectify a block in his heart. The block which had reduced his heart beat, doctors said, could have killed him.

Lying in the intensive care unit, the frail looking Ssebbowa forced a smile when he was told that journalists had come to interview him. "I have a headache, I feel dizzy but I am happy I have finally managed to eat matooke," Ssebbowa, a resident of Ssemuto, Nakaseke district, said. Although he could remember the operation, Ssemuto could not say if he was feeling better.

Dr. Tom Mwambu, the team leader of the operation, said Ssebbowa complained of aching ribs, dizziness, headache and that he had not eaten in four days when he was admitted a week ago.

Former Kampala resident district commissioner Cranimer Kalinda, 78, is Ssebbowa's eldest son.