MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New heart operations in Punta Arenas

Next July a special team of Santiago cardio surgeons will be arriving in Punta Arenas to perform heart operations in the local hospital.

The team comes from Hospital Dipreca which specializes in cardiology and is headed by Dr. Miguel Luis Berr, who started heart operations in Punta Arenas. His local coordinator and who regularly travels to Santiago for training in the hospital's Coronary Unit is Dr. Juan Aguilar Perez.

Nurses and anaesthetic experts travel regularly to Santiago for training.

So far this year 24 patients from Punta Arenas have been operated in the Dipreca hospital of Santiago because of the long waiting list.

However the plan is for heart operations to be increasingly performed in Punta Arenas regional hospital as will be happening next July.

Most operations refer to aortic and coronary pathologies which are addressed with by passes.

The firs two cases to have heart operations in Punta Arenas, a bus driver and a barber have recovered satisfactorily, according to Dr. Aguilar Perez.