MINISTRY OF HEALTH OPENS CARDIOLOGY DEPARTMENT AT DCFH

Dominicans suffering with severe heart conditions have easier access to cardiovascular care on island as the Dominica China Friendship Hospital opened its new cardiology department last Friday.

This comes as the first step in the development of a fully equipped cardiology unit with more sophisticated equipment at the DCFH.

The new department comes equipped with twenty four hour halter monitoring, eliminating the need for patients to travel overseas to get such procedures done. Other amenities include a twenty four hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring; external pacemaker capabilities, echocardiograms and the latest twelve lead ECG technology.

Minister for Health, Wellness and New Health Investment Hon. Dr. Irving McIntyre views the recent addition as a milestone for Dominica’s health care system.

“We the Ministry of Health and the Government, we are really pleased and we are really grateful to our friendly Governments particularly the Chinese and the lso the Cubans. This fits in very well with the Dominica China friendship Hospital and we are really pleased and we are very grateful to the people of China for helping us start off our new Cardiology Department. From here we can only see things getting better and better and this is the growth and development of not just our secondary and tertiary health system but just a better service for all the people of Dominica. It just makes life better and more productive,” Dr. McIntyre stated.

The Minister thanked cardiologists Dr. Dexi Wu from the Chinese Technical Assistance Team and Dominica’s own cardiologist Dr. Rachel Andrew for their proactive and dedicated efforts toward this new addition.

“We’re really pleased at the Ministry of Health because we can just see how gradually we are getting to where we want to be. But what we also have to appreciate the fact that we have persons like Dr. Andrew and Dr. Wu and the dedication that they put into taking the initiative and looking at the bigger picture. So today we are planting a seed and our children and grandchildren will reap the benefits of this,” Dr. McIntyre added.

Cardiologists Dr. Wu and Dr. Andrew made history when they successfully implanted the first temporary pacemaker to resuscitate a critically ill patient who suffered a severe bradycardia (very low heart rate).

According to Dr. Rachel Andrew, the surgical procedure was a major success with the patient stabilized and resting comfortably in the new intensive care unit at the hospital.

“We also had historic moment in which Dr. Wu and myself thanks to the donation by our Chinese friends, implanted the first temporary pacemaker. Our patient is currently stable in the ICU and we are very happy for that,” Dr. Andrew revealed.

Historic patient Miss Louisa Simon was admitted at the Accident and Emergency Department of the Dominica-China Friendship Hospital on May 7, 2021 with a condition diagnosed as an Acute Myocardial Infarction (heart attack) and complete atrioventricular block. Her condition was assessed as life threatening and a decision was taken by the cardiology team to implant the temporary pacemaker - donated by the people’s republic of china - to restore her heartbeat to normalcy.

“Thank God for the doctors. I am the first and I hope I will not be the last one. I thank God for the doctor and I wish God give him long life,” Ms. Simon stated.

Arrangements are currently being finalized for the transfer of the patient to an overseas facility for a higher level of invasive cardiac intervention not currently available at the hospital.