The St. Elizabeth Cardiac Centre, Shisong, Bui division, celebrated since inauguration in 2009 as a divine gift to Cameroon and Africa is setting a new chapter in life saving efforts. In effect, defibrillator implantations will be part of the Centre before September 2013 runs out for patients diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
After depending on visiting specialists from Italy, Sweden, France, Gernany and the United States of America, the lone cardio-surgical centre of the sub-region now sounds off with Dr Charles Mve Mvondo as the first ever resident cardiac surgeon in Cameroon. The manager of the Centre, Rev.Sr. Jethro Nkenglefac, counts the blessings of the resident surgeon who according to her, "ensures patient security before and after surgery, facilitates pre-surgical screening, improves follow-up in the intensive care Unit, steps up the scientific and social profile of the center and standardises its surgical protocol". Away from that, Sr. Jethro told Cameroon Tribune that the resident surgeon ensures the timely surgical intervention of patients diagnosed for surgery instead of waiting for foreign specialists.
The threatening reality of cardio vascular diseases stars Africa on the face and the Shisong Cardiac Centre is already on record with 20.000 consultations, over 350 open heart surgeries, 50 pacemaker implantations and 220 catheterisations in four years of operation. Continuous research and practice has given the centre a character that puts it on the rails of scientific innovations and development. It is against this backdrop that management salutes current south-south cooperation with the Maputo, Mozambique Cardiac centre. At press time, a team of Cardiac surgeons and anaesthetologists from Mozambique's Cardiac Centre (ICCOR), were in Shisong with a 12-year experience to offer life-saving cardiac surgery operations.
From the look of things, the Shisong Cardiac Centre has the potential of operating over 300 patients annually but Communications Officers, Rev Sr. Appolonia Budzee and Nicoline Barah Lukong told Cameroon Tribune that "the waiting list keeps swelling because somebody else has got to pay for those who cannot, because the lack of financial support limits the patients' chances and that of the center as well". That explains the role of the Shisong Heart Foundation in persuading Cameroonians to contribute towards the assistance of long waiting lists of poor patients in need of surgery. The Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis, promoters of the Shisong Cardiac Center take credit for strong ethical and managerial principles.
