The connection of Operation Open Heart and Cardiac all began with Sir Brian Bell becoming Chairman of the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH). His passion for supporting PNG’s largest referral and training hospital continued for more than 30 years.

In his tenure, one of the largest and most important programs launched in the history of PMGH and the country was Operation Open Heart. Open Heart Surgery was something that was never going to happen on the back of Government Budgets and Sir Brian Bell as Chairman, helped establish and launched Operation Open Heart with the support of the Australian Open Heart International [OHI] organization.

It was the late surgeon, Dr. Leonard Numu Kaupa working together with Dr John Wallace, Professor John Vince, and many others that initiated the idea of open-heart surgery for children with congenital heart disease back in1989. Working together with Mr. Russell Lee of the OHI and Sydney Adventist Hospital, the first open heart surgery program was brought to PNG in 1993, starting specifically in Goroka General Hospital [Eastern Highlands Province] where the late Dr Leonard Kaupa was based at that time. The Australian cardiac team comprised of volunteer nurses and doctors from all over Australia who came and spent one week at the Goroka General Hospital and another week at the Port Moresby General Hospital performing lifesaving cardiac surgeries. After five years of operating in Goroka, due to logistic and financial reasons, the program was later transferred to the Port Moresby General Hospital. Where it has been ever since.

Over the last 26 years, more than a thousand children and adults have received life-saving heart surgery. In the last 10 years, a group of local doctors have taken on the challenge to develop and localize the cardiac program further. The long-term aim is to establish an independent cardiac unit within the Port Moresby General Hospital which can provide cardiology [pediatric and adult] and cardiac surgery services. The Operation Open Heart program has created a pathway for PNG nationals to get training and eventually become better qualified. Through this program, local doctors have received training in cardiology, interventional cardiology, cardiac surgery, and cardiac anaesthesia. This has made it possible for many non-open-heart procedures to be done locally such as PDA ligation, permanent pacemaker insertions, and pericardiectomy.

OOH caters for patients in Papua New Guinea to provide professional medical treatments to those who can’t access these services overseas, due to the limitations of the health care system.
Operation Open Heart attracts a team of our volunteers, usually over 35-45 individuals, including surgeons, anaesthetists, physiotherapists, intensive care and operating theatre nurses, and technicians who all donate their time, skills, expertise, and money to visit PNG annually to provide ongoing training and support, particularly in post-operative care. They also help meet the need for an increased surgical presence to cope with the growing demand for surgery.

Since this program began, over time it has shifted from providing cardiac surgery by Australian volunteers to focusing on establishing an independent cardiac surgery unit within the PMGH to provide the opportunity for most of its patients to receive another chance in life without having to wait for the annual open-heart program.

The cost of this type of surgery alone would be AUD$30,000 per patient if they had to travel overseas. This kind of money is well beyond most Papua New Guineans. The medical team along with the numerous sponsors of Operation Open Heart make it possible for the surgery to be conducted right here within Papua New Guinea. It is a huge logistical effort requiring the transport from Australia of more than two tonnes of medical equipment and supplies. This has all been managed by TNT and Air Niugini FREE of CHARGE.

The Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory (Cath Lab) is a new unit installed here at Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH). Open Heart International (OHI) has brought its first Cath Lab team to get everything up and running with local staff in the newly built space. Funding for this has come from a range of sources including a large swell of local support towards independent cardiac service. The unit is staffed by doctors, radiographers, and nurses who use the lab and X-rays to diagnose and treat a range of heart-related illnesses.

The presence of the Cath Lab should dramatically improve the quality of life for many people who previously did not have access to such life-saving cardiac treatment. This is part of a larger redevelopment of services happening here at PMGH which will greatly improve the local capacity to treat and care for cardiac patients.

In August 2019, the National Doctors Association was on hand to witness the ninth procedure Angiography performed at the recently opened CAT Lab at Port Moresby General Hospital. The first one was done by Jason Sharp, a Visiting Interventional Cardiologist from Sydney Seventh Day Adventist Hospital. With the assistance and supervision of Dr. Sharp and his Australian Team, Dr. Wesong Boko (PNG’s own Interventional Cardiologist) and his PNG Team did the next lot of eight diagnostics angiography successfully without any complication. Few more were on the waiting bay to have their turn.

Taking one step forward is a huge gain in our progress towards providing Tertiary Health Service in Papua New Guinea and reducing cost burdens on Papua New Guineans traveling overseas. It is good to hear the Government giving significance to tertiary health care whilst maintaining primary and secondary health services in Papua New Guinea.

This project is the realization of the urgent need in the country to establish a Heart Centre or a Cardiothoracic Unit to not only cater for the high number of Executives and Professionally qualified manpower who are dying of lifestyle diseases that Papua New Guinea is inundated with, but also to extend this specialist services to the less privileged who are unable to afford the cost of treatment overseas.

The project has six (6) important and crucially interrelated components that must be considered in total as one cannot work on its own without the other. These components are:
1. Construction of a Cardiothoracic Unit (CTU)
2. Human Resource Development
3. Equipment for the Unit
4. Annual Operation Open Heart
5. Annual Functionality of the Unit
6. Research and Development