The Tininga Group of Companies of Mt Hagen has once again come to the aid of paediatric heart patients from Western Highlands by meeting their travel and accommodation costs to go for open and closed heart surgery.

The company had made a donation of more than K30,000 in July to assist these children and their guardians to travel to Lae first for further screening and later to Port Moresby to undergo surgery.

The donation is part of an ongoing financial assistance the company provides every year to send paediatric heart patients and their guardians to Lae and Port Moresby for closed and open heart surgery.

The money is used to pay for transport, airfares, accommodation and meals for the children and their guardians as well as a doctor and nursing officer who are required to accompany them to both Lae and Port Moresby.

This year more than 50 children were screened at the Mt Hagen Hospital Loo Pok Heart Clinic by a paediatrician and heart specialist from the Port Moresby General Hospital, Dr. Cornelia Kilalang.

Following the screening, six children were referred to Lae for further screening while five were sent to Port Moresby for closed heart operation.

Those that were sent to Lae were all selected for open heart surgery but only one had undergone surgery due to many children waiting to be operated on and the lack of time to operate on all of them. The five remaining children would now have to wait till next year to have their hearts operated on and rectified.

Two of the children sent from Mt Hagen for the closed heart operation early this month have returned, happy that they have been given a new lease of life. The other four that have had successful operations will return later this month.

The Board and Management of the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority have expressed great appreciation to the owners of Tininga Ltd., Pat and Margie Duckworth for their continuous financial support for the unfortunate and marginalised children to have their heart problems rectified.

Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Paulus Ripa said without the company’s support, many of these children may not be able to survive and he thanked Pat and Margie for having a kind heart to assist them.

Photo: Dr. Cornelia Kilalang checks a child’s heart while the parents comfort him.

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