Groundbreaking Melomed heart op

Dr Sherwin Ramghulam, new Cardiothoracic Surgeon to Zululand, and his team are ecstatic after conducting their first cardiac operation at Melomed Richards Bay, which was an outstanding success.

Patient Caiphus Zungu, a 39-year-old man from Nongoma, had shortness of breath and chest pain and was found to be in cardiac failure.

Dr Ramghulam explained that the patient had a massively dilated aorta and leaking aortic valve that caused blood to return to the heart rather than circulate around the body.

Prior to surgery his cardiac failure had to be treated and the excess water drained. He also had kidney damage that required attention.

Zungu underwent an operation on Friday, 28 June. He was put onto bypass with the heart-lung machine and his body cooled down to protect the tissue.

He required a demanding operation that entailed replacing the aortic valve with a mechanical valve, resection of the ascending aorta and replacing it with a graft, and reattaching the tiny coronary arteries, a procedure named as the Modified Bentall Operation.

‘The operation lasted eight hours in theatre and he was stable in ICU after the procedure,’ says Dr Ramghulam.

He did extremely well and was taken off the ventilator the following day.

Zungu now has a metal valve and is required to take blood thinning tablets to prevent any clotting of this valve.

Once his blood levels were within the normal range, Mr Zungu was fit for discharge just six days after the massive operation.

‘We are proud of our success. However, this is just the start,’ said Dr Ramghulam.
‘We plan to provide people of northern KZN with a cardiac centre of excellence, catering for all their needs and obviating the inconvenience of travelling to Durban for cardiac or thoracic surgical services.

Melomed Richards Bay will be the only comprehensive  cardiology /cardiothoracic service for northern KZN with a state-of-the-art theatre and interventional  catheterisation lab. This centre will provide a 24-hour service.

‘We initially planned for our first case to be a straightforward valve replacement in a patient with a good heart function. However, when we were presented with this extremely sick patient that required one of the most technically demanding cardiac operations, we were up for the challenge and performed our best to afford this patient the best outcome possible,’ said Dr Ramghulam.

The cardiac surgery team is made up of Dr Sherwin Ramghulam (cardiothoracic surgeon), Dr Belinda Kusel (cardiac anaesthetist), Dr Sizwe Mthiyane (interventional cardiologist), Mrs Reshka Ramghulam (cardiovascular perfusionist) and the team of nursing practitioners at Melomed Richards Bay.

Dr Sherwin Ramghulam

Dr Ramghulam has a passion for his work and loves to push the boundaries. He completed his fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

He then furthered his training on minimally invasive thoracic surgery at Shangai Pulmonary Hospital, China, under Professor Diego Gonzales. This is a high volume centre that undertakes more than 80 lung resections a day.

To master his cardiac surgery skills, Dr Ramghulam trained in Kerala Cardiac Centre of Excellence, India, under Professor Murali Vettath. His training was focused on beating heart surgery, the use of arterial grafts and minimally invasive cardiac surgery.

Dr Ramghulam returned to South Africa and made headlines after undertaking a triple vessel beating heart arterial revascularisation in 2017. In 2018 he performed a cardiac operation with a 4cm incision under the breast tissue.

A first of kind for Zululand

Hospital Manager, Randal Pedro, said that Melomed is proud to have hosted this first of its kind operation in Zululand.

We are proud of our association with skilled and competent clinicians such as Dr Ramghulam. We applaud our medical team, including our nursing staff, who together with the team of specialists ensured that Mr Zungu had the best possible outcome – both pre- and postsurgery.

‘Melomed is proud to have changed the private healthcare landscape in the Zululand area, and soon we will boast a fully interventional catheterisation laboratory, ably backed by Dr Sizwe Mthiyane (interventional cardiologist).

‘Both these sought after clinicians have been recruited by Melomed Richards Bay and they comes with a skills set and vast experience to assist any patient with a cardiac or related heart condition.

We look forward to assisting patients within the ‘golden hour’ by offering patients innovative and the latest advances in healthcare, thus ensuring more positive patient outcomes resulting in a better quality of life for those who suffered and survived such a traumatic ordeal.