Girl who underwent rare heart surgery in Dar dies

Dar es Salaam. Happiness Josephat, the six year-old girl who underwent a rare heart surgery at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI) in July, has died.

She died as she was being taken to the Selian Hospital in Arusha on Monday and was buried on Wednesday at Mbulu in Manyara Region.

The deceased’s mother Ms Elitruda Malley told The Citizen in a telephone interview on Wednesday that Happiness had progressed well after the surgery but started coughing a week before she died.

“As the cough worsened we rushed her to hospital but she died on the way,” the sorrowful mother said.

JKCI director of Paediatric Services Peter Kisenge also told The Citizen that Happiness might have died of pneumonia; “It is difficult to determine the actual cause of her death. Only the postmortem would help us determine that. But according to the information, she might died of pneumonia,” Prof Kisenge said.

JKCI executive director Prof Mohamed Janabi said he was saddened by the death of Happiness who was the first patient to undergo the rare heart surgery at the institute in July this year.

“This is a big challenge to us indeed and on behalf of JKCI, I send my condolences to the grieving family over the loss of their beloved daughter. After such complicated surgeries we normally instruct parents to rush their children to hospital the instant they notice anything unusual in Happiness’ case she might have died of pneumonia,” he said.

In July this year Happiness was referred to JKCI from health facilities in Arusha for more diagnosis after medical tests had revealed that her heart was beating irregularly, a condition known medically as Congenital Heart Block that necessitated open heart surgery.

She underwent the surgical procedure in July, the first such kind to be performed in Tanzania.

She responded quickly to treatment and she was soon discharged from hospital before travelling back to Arusha.