Petition gathers 135,000 signatures to secure children’s heart operations

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A petition signed by 135,000 persons was filed to Minister of Health and Social Services Liisa Hyssälä and to the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) by Sydänlapset ry on Tuesday to secure the heart operations for children.
      Sydänlapset ry is an association for children with heart diseases.
      The heart operations that have been centralised at the Hospital for Children and Adolescents in the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa have been piling up badly as scheduled operations have to be constantly postponed because of emergency patients who need immediate surgery.
      The situation is particularly difficult for families, who are under enormous pressure and have had to make a lot of arrangements for the upcoming operation. Moreover, several families have already had to experience many cancellations.
     
The problem is that the intensive care unit is too small, according to Eero Jokinen, Chief of Pediatric Cardiology of the Hospital for Children and Adolescents.
      There are only ten hospital beds available in the unit, with no spare beds in reserve. Typically, there are often nine to ten patients already in the unit, and when an emergency occurs a scheduled operation has to be postponed.
      A majority of the annual 300 heart operations are performed on emergency duty.
      Another reason for the large number of operations is the fact that currently it is possible to correct even difficult heart defects that could not be operated on 10 to 15 years ago. On the other hand, the advanced techniques that are being employed in modern heart surgery make it sometimes possible to avoid invasive surgery and correct a heart defect by a catheter.
     
The situation will improve only when a new emergency unit with 16 beds is in use in 2008.


Links:
  The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa

Helsingin Sanomat