BY NIZBERT MOYO
PARENTS of children affected by heart diseases under the grouping called Brave Little Hearts Zimbabwe have expressed concern over bureaucratic constraints that they often go through at government care centres, which has resulted in high mortality rates.
They said while there are several volunteer doctors from abroad that are willing to assist their children to get treatment, bureaucratic constraints made it difficult for them to access their services and medication.
Brave Little Heart of Zimbabwe founder Tendai Moyo told NewsDay that since the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed last year, 40 children died after they failed to access care from Indian doctors that were offering free heart surgery.
“We have lost more than 40 children during the lockdown period. The birth rate in Zimbabwe shows that congenital heart disease occurs in one out of 100 live births. Therefore, 1290 children with heart diseases will be born in every province each year,” Moyo said.
“All congenital heart diseases require surgery or Cath Lab interventions, while 25% of such patients will die in the first month of life without intervention.”
She said government needs to urgently give international philanthropic partners licenses to allow them to come into the country and assist by treating the children, and training local doctors.
Moyo urged the government to come up with a monitoring and evaluation system for heart patients.
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She said they were experiencing stigma at government hospitals where they are not being given the best care.
“The Cardiac Unit which was established at Mpilo Central Hospital is also becoming a white elephant due to shortages of modern equipment.
At the weekend, Industry and Commerce deputy minister Raj Modi sponsored a 10km run event in a bid to raise awareness of heart disease and to raise funds for children to undergo surgery in India.
Moji pledged to sponsor two children that need heart surgery, as well as their parents for a medical trip to India so that the children can access treatment.
Bulawayo provincial medical director Maphios Siamuchembu said some of the challenges being experienced in treatment of heart diseases include lack of equipment.
“Our mandate is to save the population of Bulawayo as far as medical issues are concerned. If we have challenges, we refer patients to countries abroad. We do not refuse to give licenses to any doctors coming from abroad, it’s only that they have to go through an assessment process, and they should be authenticated before they are allowed to treat our people,’’ Siamuchembu said.
