Bolashak fuels development of cardiac surgery in Kazakhstan

Nursultan Nazarbayev has stressed the importance of Bolashak Presidential Scholarship and the effect it had on the development of cardiac surgery in Kazakhstan at the anniversary forum of the Scholarship late last week, Tengrinews reports. The President recalled the unfortunate statistics of the year 2008 when 10 thousand people were waiting for cardiac surgeries and the surgeons “were capable of performing only 800-900” surgeries a year. “The remaining patients who were able to pay had to go abroad, while others who couldn't afford the treatment remained untreated. Mortality from cardiovascular diseases became the number one scourge,” said Nazarbayev. He added that the grim statistics was changed thanks to young highly qualified professionals, newly built medical facilities and use of the up-to-the-minute equipment. As of today, 40 thousand surgeries have been successfully conducted. “All (40 thousand patients) were saved, all of these surgeries were made here in Kazakhstan and all of them were free of charge" for the patients, said the President. Nursultan Nazarbayev addressed one of the first Bolashak Scholarship alumni Dmitri Gorbunov, a prominent cardiac surgeon who graduated from the University of Freiburg in 2000: “You have become one of the best surgeons in the country. The 1700 surgeries you have made speak for themselves. Saving the lives of newborns is a noble deed.” Gorbunov expressed gratitude to the President for the opportunity to study abroad. “We operate on our patients to give them a chance to recover, the same as you have given us a chance to receive an excellent education and to realize our dreams 20 years ago. Today 13 Bolashak alumni are working in the National Cardiac Surgery Center and 5 of them are cardiac surgeons,” concluded Dmitri Gorbunov. By Baubek Konyrov