Hungarian surgeons have performed the first ever pacemaker implantation in African country

Hungarian surgeons have performed the first ever pacemaker implantation in Chad, the state secretary for helping persecuted Christians said on Friday.

Hungary carried out two successful medical missions in Chad in the autumn which included fundamental life-saving screening tests, training, as well as the country’s first ever pacemaker implantation, Tristan Azbej told MTI.

The implantation was performed by a team of health-care volunteers from Budapest’s St. Ferenc Hospital as part of the Hungary Helps Agency’s medical mission, Azbej said. This milestone, he said, was the start of a new chapter in Chad’s health-care system, involving local doctors and experts.

The support provided through the Hungary Helps humanitarian scheme was indispensible in ensuring that pacemaker implantations could be performed locally, contributing to reducing mortality rates related to heart disease, he said. The programme’s long-term goal is to allow local surgeons to master the skills needed for implanting and programming pacemakers, ensuring that these procedures could be performed in Chad. Azbej added that the mission involved ECG and pacemaker programming training sessions.