Austrian surgeon sets up children's heart unit in Sarajevo

Wollenek said he and a team of colleagues at Vienna General Hospital were regularly visiting Sarajevo and operating on children there. The eventual goal was to set up a permanent heart surgery unit with local staff at the University Clinic in the Bosnian capital. Wollenek said he first had the idea when Bosnian children were being brought to him for operations in Vienna. "although only a few privileged ones had any benefit."

"Transport and care of such children in Vienna is very expensive. Besides the operation there are costs for a five-week stay, usually with one of the parents". The doctor decided it would be far more efficient if he travelled to see his junior patients rather than have them come to see him. Not only could a heart unit be built up to the benefit of the state of Bosnia. As many as 15 children could be operated on in Sarajevo at the cost of bringing a single child to Vienna. Wollenek went on his first trip to Sarajevo in 1999. "It was amazing. The University Clinic had been completely rebuilt after the war, and equipped with the most modern instruments". "But there were no patients - and certainly not any children born with heart defects to be operated on". He said the reason was that in the old Yugoslavia, the little patients had always been taken to Belgrade or Ljubljana. There had never been a pediatric surgery unit in Sarajevo, and local staff did not have the necessary training. Wollenek promptly decided to start his project. He said his present method was to form a team made up of a cardiac surgeon, cardiologist, anaesthetist, intensive medicine specialist, operating theatre nurse, and cardio-technologist. "This team, with varying members, flies to Sarajevo for a week at a time to operate on and look after children together with our Bosnian colleagues," said the doctor.

"This should lead in two years to the hospital in Sarajevo having its own surgical team for children". There was certainly enough demand, he said. According to estimates for the whole of Bosnia, 250 babies were born each year with heart deficiencies which could be corrected by surgery. The team in Sarajevo would eventually be able to deal with 75 per cent of the cases without outside help, said Wollenek. Recalling his lats trip Wollenek said the team operated on 19 children aged between two months and seven years. "Ten children and two adults are already waiting for our next visit". Wollenek said he and his colleagues were particularly pleased that junior patients were also being brought to Sarajevo for surgery from the Bosnian-Serb "Republika Srbska". "That shows a certain understanding among peoples, which is what the project is all about", he said.

(sda)