Girl who underwent rare heart surgery at Tanzania’s Muhimbili National Hospital dies
Happiness John on July 20, the day she was discharged from Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute after a successful open heart surgery. Tendering her hair is her mother Elitruda Malley and, looking on, is JKCI Information Officer Mohamed Maulid. PHOTOIFILE
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She passed on she was being taken to the Selian hospital in Arusha on Monday and she was buried on Wednesday at Mbulu in Manyara region.
Dar es Salaam. Happiness John, the six year-old girl who underwent a rare heart surgery at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI) in July, has died.
She passed on she was being taken to the Selian hospital in Arusha on Monday and she was buried on Wednesday at Mbulu in Manyara region.
The deceased mother Ms Elitruda Malley told The Citizen in a telephone interview on Wednesday that Happiness was progressing well after the surgery but she started coughing continuously a week before she died.
“When it became serious we rushed her to the hospital but she died on the way,” the sorrowful mother said.
JKCI Director of Paediatric Services Dr Peter Kisenge also told The Citizen that Happiness might have died of pneumonia; “It is difficult to say which disease caused her death. Only the postmortem could help us determine that. But according to the information available information I think she died of pneumonia,” Prof Kisenge said.
JKCI Executive Director Prof Mohamed Janabi said he was saddened by the death of Happiness who was the first patient to undergo the first but successful rare heart surgery at the institute in July.
“It is a big challenge indeed to us, and on behalf of JKCI, I send my condolences to the grieving family for the loss of their beloved daughter. After such complicated surgeries we normally instruct parents to take their children back to hospital the instance they observe abnormal changes to patients. She might have died of pneumonia,” he said.
In July this year Happiness was referred to JKCI from lower health facilities in Arusha for more diagnosis after medical tests had revealed that her heart was beating irregularly, the condition known medically as Congenital Heart Block (CHB). This necessitated open heart surgery.
She therefore underwent the surgery which was the first such kind of surgery to be conducted in Tanzania. She responded quickly to treatment and she was soon discharged from hospital and travelled back to Arusha.
