He noted that working with such patients is very complicated, as they may have only one or two valves instead of four, like healthy individuals. Without surgery, these children could die within a year or two. According to the minister, the same group of doctors had visited the country 15 years ago, and there were also recorded cases of mortality at that time. However, he only learned about them during an inspection. This time, unfortunately, three of the initial surgeries ended in fatalities, which caused dissatisfaction from the president. Checheybaev acknowledged that he took the reprimand as a given.
He also added that the surgeon explained the reasons for the tragedy as insufficient sterilization of instruments in another hospital and incorrect placement of the ultrasound machine.
Nevertheless, the minister believes that such factors cannot be the cause of death on the operating table. "Either there was a mistake in the diagnosis, or the surgery was performed incorrectly. If the instruments had been unsterile, this would have manifested only two or three days later. In this case, it was related to a medical error, which was confirmed by the commission. Perhaps the surgeon misinterpreted the question and tried to explain that additional procedures were needed, such as ultrasound and a sterilizer. As a result, I suspended all surgeries performed by foreign specialists. Our local doctors performed 19 surgeries, and no patient died. My main mistake was that I did not create a commission immediately after the first death and did not halt the surgeries," concluded Checheybaev.
