Tajik children with heart defects treated in Qingdao

Nine children from Tajikistan with complex congenital heart defects underwent successful surgeries at a hospital in Qingdao, China's Shandong province, over the past week, highlighting deepening healthcare cooperation and growing ties between the two nations.

The children, aged 2 to their early teens, arrived in Qingdao on March 13 for preoperative evaluations at the Women and Children's Hospital of Qingdao University, with treatments and surgeries beginning on March 16.

"All the procedures went smoothly, and all the children are expected to be moved to regular wards to continue their recovery," said Chen Rui, director of the hospital's heart center.

Chen said the young patients suffer from serious heart conditions, including tetralogy of Fallot — a rare combination of four structural heart defects — and severe aortic stenosis, a narrowing or blockage of the heart's main outflow valve.

Three children underwent interventional procedures, a nonsurgical approach using a catheter to repair damaged vessels. "For a 6-year-old girl, a team led by the hospital's Party secretary and renowned cardiologist Pan Silin, completed the procedure in just 13 minutes," Chen said.

Among the surgical cases, Chen highlighted a minimally invasive technique that repairs defects through an incision as small as 1.2 centimeters under the right armpit.

"A cardiac surgeon from Tajikistan who accompanied the children was amazed by the technique and its results," Chen said. "He expressed a strong desire for deeper, long-term cooperation in the future."

In case of one child, Chinese doctors discovered a large cyst in the liver, caused by a zoonotic parasitic infection called echinococcosis, during preoperative exams.

"We decided to address the cyst first to ensure the child's safety," said Zhang Jian, a senior surgeon at the hospital. "The operation went smoothly — we achieved a clean resection while preserving as much liver function as possible. The child is expected to return for cardiac surgery in six months."

According to the hospital, the initiative stemmed from the sister-city relationship between Qingdao and Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, as well as from broader healthcare cooperation within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Hospital officials attributed the program's success to multidisciplinary preparation, individualized treatment plans and advanced expertise of Chinese doctors.

Wang Yanyan, head nurse of the hospital's cardiac intensive care unit, said the nursing staff prepared by learning basic Tajik phrases, including words for "eat", "drink", "I want to sit up" and "urinate", as well as simple phrases of encouragements such as "you're doing great".

"We also played cartoons to help the children feel at ease," she said. "Parents were allowed to visit the CICU for about half an hour each day."

Yan Hui, head of the China-Tajikistan Medical Diagnosis and Treatment Center in Dushanbe, said that many Tajik children with congenital heart defects remain on waiting lists due to limited medical resources in Tajikistan and financial constraints.

After a similar program in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region last year, inquiries from Tajik families seeking treatment in China have increased.

"The parents and children don't speak Mandarin, but they kept asking me to teach them simple phrases like 'thank you, Chinese doctor'," Yan said. "Over time, the phrase became a catchphrase during their stay here."