Bakti - 1MDB donations give IJN new non-surgical heart technique

The National Heart Institute (IJN) plans to acquire a new technique to correct leaking mitral valve patients came to reality after receiving donations totaling RM1 million from Bakti and 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The new technique known as MitraClip is a non-surgical way to correct leaking mitral valve. The current treatment for leaking mitral valves is to have surgical valve replacement or surgical valve repair that requires open heart surgery.

With Mitral Clip, the clip would narrow the size of the mitral valve opening therefore ‘correcting’ the leakage. The whole procedure is done through the leg vein, and avoids the need for open heart surgery.

The procedure had been done in a few selected centres in Europe and America, and soon in Australia. IJN would help pave the way in Asia.
 
“We hope that our contribution, together with Bakti’s, will put IJN one step closer to this revolutionary medical procedure that will in turn benefit many lives in the long term,” said 1MDB’s CEO Shahrol Halmi.

The Prime Minister's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, who is also the president of Bakti (Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers), presented a RM300,000 cheque contributed by the association and another cheque for RM700,000 from 1MDB to IJN Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Dr Robaayah Zambahari.

IJN Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Dr Robaayah Zambahari (front row, third from right) giving a briefing on the new technology