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Pak doctor discovers non-surgical method of treating heart holes - Lahore_Real_Estate - 04-14-2010 10:25 AM
* Dr Zafar says he is willing to introduce technology in Pakistan but no government official has contacted him as yet
By Afnan Khan
LAHORE: A US-based Pakistani doctor has come up with a procedure to repair heart holes and clotted arteries without surgical procedures and incision to the patient’s body.
If introduced in Pakistan, the technology will curtail hundreds of Pakistani children with heart holes from visiting India and will also save thousands of lives who are otherwise lost due to blood clotting. The medical term for repairing these holes is called Patent Foramen Ovale
(PFO) closure. Talking to Daily Times in an exclusive interview during his brief visit to Pakistan, Dr Nayab Zafar said his research was unique and had opened new doors for people suffering from any of the two ailments.
He said his research was being hailed across the globe and he was lecturing about his findings in various universities and institutions in the world, including those in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia.
Contacts: Zafar said he was completely willing to introduce the technology and training in Pakistan, but no government official had contacted him for the purpose as yet.
“But I will talk to various stakeholders about launching the procedures in Pakistan as soon as I get free from other commitments,” he said. “I will like to hold training workshops here. It seems that people are a little reluctant to adopt new technologies in this region, but I have a deep association with Pakistan, my family lives here and I feel proud to introduce my country across the world so I will do whatever is possible for this country,” he stated.
Zafar said people not only from India but from whole of the South Asia, Middle East, Africa would visit the country for treatment if the technology was introduced in Pakistan. He said he conducted a two-year long research under the auspices of US National Institute of Health and discovered the process of opening blood flow to vital organs of the body to avoid heart attacks. He added that around 25 percent of the world’s population was born with PFO, which not only resulted in heart attacks at an early age, but created major problems for the people throughout their lives.
“Two years ago, they used to do open heart surgery for that. It involves a major surgery, a lengthy recovery, massive costs and health issues, a lot of surgical trauma and anaesthetic process. But now we take a Dacron patch up to the heart, fix the PFO and the patient is ready to go very next day of the procedure,” Dr Zafar explained. He said he had conducted at least 200 PFO closure procedures in the West Coast during the last year, adding that these Dacron patches were like a folded umbrella, which were opened right before the hole in the heart, attached with it and stayed there forever. Dr Zafar earned his MBBS degree from the Allama Iqbal Medical College before completing his Internal Medicine residency training in Farmington. He completed his cardiology fellowship at the University of Missouri where he also served as a Clinical Assistant Professor. His NIH-sponsored research was on atherosclerosis and intravascular ultrasound.