First heart transplantation in Kazakhstan scheduled for November

First heart transplantation surgery in Kazakhstan is to be held in the National Scientific Cardiac Surgery Center in Astana next month, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Deputy Chairman of the Center Makhabbat Bekbossynova as saying at a dedicated press-conference on October 20. "We have the programs accepted and approved by the Holding (National Medical Holding), Nazarbayev University and Helathcare Ministry. The programs include a heart transplantation and implantation of artificial left ventricle of a heart. Both of these directions are innovative for Kazakhstan and we suggest to perform them in November,” Makhabbat Bekbossynova said. "We currently have patients; we work with international centers. We already had a master-class. We are expecting another master-class on implantation of the left ventricle in November and these patients with heavy cardiac insufficiency will be the first candidates for the heart transplantation,” she noted. According to Bekbossynova, the cardiac surgery center has everything for heart transplantation surgeries, but a lot depends on the donor. “We are ready for transplantation, the issue is in how soon the donor appears,” she said.