The cardiovascular surgery department of the Okryu Children’s Hospital has been treating children with congenitally malformed hearts or blood vessels since its inauguration.
PhD. Ri Chol Jin, chief of the department, said: Our department originated in the Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences Hospital; it moved to the Okryu Children's Hospital when it was newly built; in the initial days we performed dozens of desktop simulations, while counting seconds, for a surgery which is now so simple; we had embroidered many lily flowers during the practising period.
The success or failure of a cardiac surgery on a child with an egg-sized heart is often decided by a stitch, he said.
Moreover, cardiac surgery needs to be completed within a short time because the longer the procedure, the more complications it entails.
In order to acquire the ability to execute all the stitches most accurately and skillfully in a short time, they made an exact model of the human thorax, in which they installed a heart-sized tambour, and embroidered lily flowers on it every day for several years.
The needlework for embroidering a lily is equivalent to that for performing five cardiac surgeries. It was a toiling work for men with larger hands to embroider a lily flower throughout one night.
But through persevering efforts they could embroider lily flowers in a short time. Besides, they studied various disciplines and acquired versatile knowledge, in the course of which they all became inventors.
In 2002, they mastered original surgery and postoperative treatment methods for children’s congenital heart diseases.
In January next year, they successfully conducted their first surgery for tetralogy of Fallot, which some asserted would not be possible for them to perform after ten years. That year they performed similar operations on dozens of patients.
In addition, they succeeded in the surgery for complex cardiac malformations like tetralogy of Fallot by applying the right chest wall incision method. Their method became the standard surgical approach at home.
They have given a new heart, a new life, to more than 7 000 children for the past 25 years since the establishment of the department.
Medical workers of the department are now conducting research to master the method of neonatal heart surgery on which a few countries have a monopoly.
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