Ailing hockey legend refuses offer for heart surgery in Pakistan

KARACHI: Pakistan’s World Cup winning hockey goalkeeper Mansoor Ahmed has refused the country’s offer for a first of its kind heart surgery to treat his ailment.

According to Ahmed, he wants his surgery to be done in India as the facilities there are better than those offered in any other country. He has also said that it would take six months to a year for the treatment his heart required.

A Pakistani American heart surgeon, Dr Pervaiz Chaudhry, who has performed similar surgeries in the United States has ordered the device for Ahmed.

However, the hockey legend is said to be wary of the surgery in Pakistan as it would be the first of its kind in the country.

National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease’s Dr Nadeem Qamar has said they are ready to perform the surgery on Ahmed, but if he is not comfortable then he could go to India.

People in other parts of the world who have got similar surgeries performed on them have said they do not need heart transplants after they get the device implanted in their organs.

Ahmed has been suffering from the heart ailment for the past three years, after which he reached out to the Indian government for a visa so that he could get the needed treatment.

However, doctors in Pakistan have said that the former goalkeeper could be treated in the country. The doctors have said that they would implant a machine in Ahmed’s heart that would pump blood to the organ that was not functioning well.

The technology, which would be used for the first time in Pakistan, is implanted in hearts in which one of the ventricles stop collecting blood from an atrium and expelling it to other organs of the body.