A FIJIAN born, who is now a heart surgeon based in Auckland, New Zealand, performed 23 heart surgeries with a team of specialists on Fijians affected by rheumatic heart disease.
Dr Parma Nand has worked in New Zealand as a cardiac surgeon for about 30 years and as a cardiac surgeon for 20 years.
He said this was the 13th mission conducted by the Friends for Fiji Heart Foundation since its inception in 2006.
Dr Nand is one of founding members and chairperson of the foundation.
He highlighted that they had operated on rheumatic valvular heart disease patients this week – a disease he says is of an impoverished society and comes with overcrowding.
Dr Nand stressed that the procedure involved in replacing the patients’ valves with mechanical metal and tissue valves.
The surgeries were conducted by over 80 specialists brought in by the Friends of Fiji Heart Foundation over a six day period at Suva’s Colonial War Memorial Hospital with patients from all around Fiji.
