Health workers use holidays to help out

5:00AM Friday July 25, 2008 By Martin Johnston Forty New Zealand health workers are giving up part of their holidays to perform life-saving heart surgery in Samoa. The surgeons, nurses and other practitioners from Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin left yesterday on the 10-day surgical trip to the Pacific country's national hospital. They are part of a trend in NZ charity healthcare, following a similar trip to Samoa last year, two to Fiji since 2006, children's heart surgery in Palestine and the opening of the Canterbury Charity Hospital last year. In Apia, the team will replace heart valves in 18 people, most under 25. Such operations cost $40,000 to $50,000 in NZ and are not otherwise available in Samoa, although the country sends some patients to NZ for the surgery. The heart valves were damaged by... [read full story]