00:00 Heart transplant is something that is like for cardiology is the ultimate in terms of the therapy that we can provide to our patients.
00:09 And we had our last transplant was in 2018.
00:14 So this year, after four years, no, six years, six years hiatus, we are so blessed
00:22 that we have been able to conduct two heart transplants, one in January and one in February this year.
00:31 Our very, very deserving patients, these are young patients who have end stage heart disease in which the options were very, very limited.
00:39 And the ability for us to perform this heart transplant is also because of the strong support.
00:47 As far as Sri Lankan Negara is concerned, we have the people who are trained, we have the facilities to do it.
00:53 But just us alone would not make this program a success.
00:58 So this program requires support from a lot of other agencies, in particular from our friends in Kementan Kesehatan,
01:07 especially their National Transplant Resource Center, and also importantly is the, we call it the TOP teams,
01:15 the transplant, organ and procurement teams in Kementan Kesehatan.
01:20 Because without them, without the efforts to try and procure organ for donation,
01:25 none of the transplantation programs in this country would be able to be performed.
01:31 Also, I think importantly as mentioned, is the financial assistance that we have been receiving from the government
01:39 ever since we started our program almost 30 years ago.
01:43 So without the grants that we receive from Ministry of Health, as well as coming from Ministry of Finance,
01:52 we would also not be able to do what we are doing currently.
01:56 So this continuous support from the government is important, as Dr. Plansri pointed out,
02:01 for us to be able to continue to provide similar treatment to deserving Malaysians who have end stage heart disease.
02:10 And I think, we hope and pray that we will continue to be able to do this kind of life-saving procedures
02:17 on Malaysians who require this kind of therapy for the coming years ahead.
02:23 The challenge and challenge that we have for the past 30 years is to procure organ.
02:30 So Kementan Kesehatan cannot develop hospital transplant and so on,
02:37 because we have a need to procure organ.
02:41 So we need cooperation from every individual who has committed to develop organ.
02:49 So far, if we look at the social experience for organ development,
02:56 382,000 people have committed to develop their organs.
03:04 But only 0.02% have ended up with organ cancer.
03:11 Even though we have committed, but when the day of organ cancer has arrived,
03:17 some families do not agree and so on.
03:19 So even though we have expertise, if we do not have heart,
03:24 it is difficult for us to develop to other hospitals and also to increase the number.
03:30 So that is important.
03:32 For more information, visit www.ISGlobal.org
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