Device donation will save lives
More lives will be saved thanks to a piece of equipment donated to Cairns Hospital earlier this month.
The Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation is the region’s premiere fundraising charity and through them a donor donated the machine that can now use keyhole procedure to help with patients suffering life threatening blood clots in their lungs.
The device is called Angiojet and will be used by vascular surgeons to actively remove blood clots from the lungs, in what is believed to be the only hospital outside the south-east corner of Queensland to offer this service.
Cairns Hospital vascular surgeon Dr Sherab Bhutia said clot removal by the Angiojet device quickly reduces the clot burden and reduces the risk of death by releasing the back pressure on the heart caused by the clots.
“The traditional way of treating Pulmonary Embolism using blood thinners and clot busting medication takes longer to work and is not as effective in preventing death in cases with total or near total blockage of the lung circulation,” Dr Bhutia said.
A specialist team known as the Pulmonary Embolism Response Team, has been put together to assess potential patients who may be suitable for the procedure.
“The Angiojet works like a vacuum by a process called the Venturi effect. It allows clot busting medications to be directly sprayed on to the blood clots before they are sucked out." he said.
The Angiojet is a versatile device and is also used to clear blocked arteries, veins, grafts, dialysis conduits for patients on dialysis.
“We have already used the new device on about twenty patients so far with a variety of clot locations including pulmonary arteries.
“If not for the Angiojet procedure it would have been a lot worse – for example the patients with blocked leg arteries would have required a major open arterial surgery or risk major leg amputation.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to see a patient come in with incredible pain and who can’t walk, potentially at risk of partial amputation or death. And then to see the result of your work, with the clot cleared and they walk out of the hospital a few days later.”
Foundation CEO Gina Hogan said she was grateful for the anonymous donor’s $50,000 support of the Angiojet equipment.
“None of us wants to end up in this situation and you never know when it could happen. But how comforting to know that if we do, the equipment is here and the doctors are ready to do the job,” Mrs Hogan said.
“It’s a win not only for the patient but also the broader community in freeing up that bed space for others.”