HEART SUPPORT: NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAM HELPS CARDIAC PATIENTS WITH URGENT SURGERIES
HEALTH | 13.03.15 | 10:26
Satenik Tovmasyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Ashot Bazinyan is one of the 270 persons who have benefited from a
new government program launched this year to enable patients like
him to undergo urgent invasive heart surgeries for free.
The 64-year-old pensioner who had never had heart problems before had
to seek ambulance assistance on the evening of March 7 when he had a
sudden cardiac arrest. The paramedic brigade that arrived performed
the electrical cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the patient was taken
to the Clinic of Heratsi Hospital Complex N1 where he underwent the
state-paid invasive surgery.
“I don’t remember anything as I woke up just after the surgery, but now
my health condition is much better. What the ambulance service team and
hospital staff was very professional,” Bazinyan, a former television
director, told ArmeniaNow after receiving one bare-metal stent.
Cardiovascular diseases remain the number one killer in Armenia,
with a 48-percent mortality rate. Cardiologists say stent placement
is the most effective way to save heart patients’ lives.
According to the Minisrty of Health (MOH), statistics show that
countries like Armenia need stent placement for approximately 5,000
people, but the number of such interventions in our country does not
exceed 3,000.
Whereas according to another viewpoint, many people cannot simply
afford stent placement because of its high price. To solve the problem
the MOH on January 1 launched a one-year program of urgent surgeries
called Life Saving. Operations conducted on heart patients under this
program are free of charge.
“The program is meant not for the people who are included in
other groups for free heart invasive surgery, but for those who
are diagnosed with a life threatening infarction,” head of the MOH
medical assistance center Tsaghik Vardanyan says, adding that the
health condition of people with free stents is monitored for six
months after the surgeries.
Vardanyan does not exclude that the one-year program can be extended
depending on the number of people who need urgent heart surgeries.
Last year the MOH signed a memorandum with six medical centers
performing invasive heart surgeries, four of which are medical centers
located in Yerevan. They are: Nork Marash, Malatia, Heratsi Hospital
Complex No.1, Erebuni. The other two are the Gyumri and Goris medical
centers.
A heart surgery that costs 700,000 drams (approximately $1,500)
supposes a placement of one bare-metal stent, which costs nothing
to patients, however the placement of the second and third stents
supposes some costs to be covered by patients themselves.
The program is funded from the state budget that earmarks 500 million
drams (more than $1 million).
According to representatives of the sphere, the operation is performed
only after the verification of appropriate measurements developed for
such cases. It is vitally important that the operation be performed
within the first 12 hours after the heart attack, otherwise it will
have no results, specialists say.
Vardanyan says that 151 of those who received medical assistance
as part of the program are residents of Yerevan, the rest 119 are
patients from provinces. Of the program beneficiaries 210 are men
and 60 are women, their average age being 63.
Remarkably, the free heart stent placement program also covers all
post-surgery expenses as well.
Bazinian, who is recovering after the surgery, says the program also
pays for his other expenses related to treatment.
“Besides the free surgery here I also have free medication and I
don’t pay for the ward, as for the staff treatment, I can say that
their periodic examinations prevent me from possible aggravations,”
says the pensioner, adding that the urgent surgery he underwent proved
really lifesaving for him.