News Feature

Croatian doctors operate on heart defect children

20 October 2008

Cardiac surgeons from Rijeka in Croatia have successfully operated on ten children with heart defects in the last ten days, it has been reported.

With the help of an Italian cardiac surgery team, the surgeons carried out operations which have never been performed on children in the country before, according to the Croatian Times.

There are 250 children waiting for heart operations in the country, but this year 150 of them had to be sent abroad for surgery due to lack of funding and doctors.

Vladimir Ahel, chief of the clinic for children's diseases, told the source for the first time this year those younger than 12 months old received heart surgery.

"They were extremely-difficult operations which had never been performed in Croatia before," he added.

Mr Ahel also stressed the importance of building a cardiac-surgery department for children, which would cost less than sending them abroad for operations, according to the newspaper.

In recent news, a Croatian scientist discovered people with Alzheimer's disease forget anxiety and worry which causes their high blood pressure to fall. ADNFCR-1197-ID-18834458-ADNFCR