New Vision (Kampala)
Aidah Nanyonjo
31 October 2009
Kampala — A NINE-YEAR-OLD boy has successfully undergone open-heart surgery at the Uganda Heart Institute in Mulago Hospital, funded by the Rotary Club of Kampala Central.
Solomon Kyazze was diagnosed with a hole in the heart when he was one year. "The doctors thought the hole would close with time, but it didn't," Joyce Nakimuli, the boy's mother, said on Friday.
The Rotary president, Phoebe Kaleega, said they sponsored the heart operation as one of the activities to mark 16 years of the club's existence. Dr. Michael Okecho, who headed the operation, said there were many other similar cases, especially among children.
He said the institute had carried out surgery on over 45 children since 2007, most of them conducted with the help of foreign cardiologists. "This is the fourth operation carried out on a child without the assistance of foreign experts," Okecho said.
The institute receives over 9,000 heart patients annually. Ugandans, especially children, are normally flown abroad for heart surgeries.
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