By Tupou Vaipulu
Over $150,000 pa'anga worth of vascular health detection equipment, was donated by Rotary to the Ministry of Health at Vaiola Hospital, Nuku'alofa, yesterday 24 February.
Four Cardio-ankle Vascular Index (CAVI) devices, were donated to the Ministry of Health to improve early detection of vascular problems in patients.
Leader of the Rotary team to Tonga, Mr. Yasunori Kutsumi, said the CAVI devices have two main benefits: they do not require any extensive training or special skills to use and they cause no discomfort when used on patients.
“If you are able to measure blood pressure then you’ll be able to use these devices,” he said.
The CAVI device assesses arterial stiffness by measuing the time it takes for the pulse to get to the legs and the arms.
Mr. Yasunori said that diabetic patients that are in a high-risk state to be amputated, will benefit most from these devices.
“The devices will be able to earlier detect problems that we have with patients who could be at risk of amputations,” he said.
Identifying these problems at an early stage gives doctors more time to reduce the likelihood of a patient having limbs amputated.
While he was on a polio mission to Fiji, Mr. Yasunori said that he saw a lot of amputations in diabetic patients, and it was similar in Tonga.
He said that he wanted to get these devices for Tonga to help patients avoid this outcome of diabetes.
The donation was funded by Rotary International through a coordinated project between the Rotary Japan club and the Nuku'alofa Rotary club.
