Dr Teo (right) with a recipient of Peka 40 health aid scheme.
MIRI: Miri Hospital has performed over 80 cases of life-saving brain surgeries since 2019 , with the latest case of a 23-year-old Iban woman’s life being saved after she collapsed and fell into a coma due to undiagnosed hypertension.
Miri MP Dr Michael Teo said that this latest case was one of many lives saved with the availability of such operations in Miri, thanks to the arrangement from the Sarawak Medical Department in sending neurosurgeons to Miri Hospital from Sarawak General Hospital.
“The most recent life saved was a 23-year-old Iban woman who fainted and fell into a coma and this kind of case is very serious, but luckily she recovered consciousness in two days after emergency brain surgery was performed by neurosurgeon Manvinder Singh Mangat at Miri Hospital.
“This is a classic case of early intervention being important; otherwise, the results would not have been good if the bleeding had continued,” Dr Teo said when met after officiating the ‘Peka 40 and MySalam’ programme briefing for Miri Hospital staff yesterday.
Previously, such patients would have to be sent to Kuching via helicopter, a four-hour journey, or to Brunei via ambulance to undergo brain surgery — a hazardous journey as most patients would be comatose, and some patients would have died before reaching Kuching due to the long journey and lack of medical equipment onboard.
“This is the reason a neurosurgeon is needed in Miri, and we are fortunate that the Ministry of Health has arranged that there would be one in Miri Hospital at any one given time, with two surgeons taking their fortnightly turn,” Dr Teo added.
Miri Hospital is regarded as a main referral hospital in the northern region of Sarawak, serving a population of about 1.5 million people coming not just from Miri, but also from Limbang, Lawas, Marudi, Ulu Baram, Niah, Sibuti, Bekenu, Suai, Long Lama, Ba Kelalan and Bario.
Meanwhile, he advised the public to respond calmly and rationally in facing the global pandemic of Wuhan coronavirus (2019-nCov), saying it was comparatively milder than other viruses in previous pandemic outbreaks.
He said the Ministry of Health was doing a good job in detecting and containing the virus as confirmed by World Health Organisation (WHO).
“ We should not over-react and panic. It has a low mortality rate is very low – only two percent – compared to more dangerous H1N1 and there are many other ailments which have a higher mortality rate,” he said.
A Malaysian woman, who is the first case of local transmission, and a woman from Wuhan, China, are the two latest positive cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the tally in Malaysia to 14, comprising 10 Chinese nationals and four Malaysians.
The first local transmission case, the 40-year-old woman who had no history of visiting China, was a younger sister of the local man who tested positive last Tuesday.