Filipina patient shares heart operation experience at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital
It was a common scenario for Vanessa Ocampo, a Filipina training consultant by profession, to experience severe palpitations in the last 10 years. She had been used to it, as she told BusinessWorld in an interview, not until a year came when she experienced it every week.
From that time, Mrs. Ocampo took some rest for six months, and observed less heartbeat irregularities thereafter. Assuming everything was fine, she decided to get back to her normal routine of doing trainings and travel.
Last March, Mrs. Ocampo, together with her husband, went to Singapore for a mission trip. And while having a dinner in a mall, she unexpectedly suffered from palpitations. After taking her medicines and making all the techniques she know to get her heartbeat back to normal, the irregularities continued, recording almost 200 beats per minute.
This pushed them to go straight to the nearest hospital in the area which happened to be the Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, a health care facility operated by Parkway Hospitals Singapore. Although Mrs. Ocampo’s heart stabilized after three hours, she had another episode of tachycardia. The doctors advised her then to be admitted in the hospital.
After knowing Mrs. Ocampo’s medical history, Dr. Lim Choon Pin, a cardiologist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, offered her to undergo a catheter ablation procedure, which would be a permanent solution to her heart disorder — supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) — diagnosed in 2016.
Dr. Hsu Li Fern, a senior consultant and cardiologist at the same hospital, did the procedure. It lasted for three and a half hours — which supposed to be done for about two hours — as another case of abnormal heart rhythm called atrial tachycardia was discovered during the operation.
Mrs. Ocampo shared that she was so blessed that Dr. Hsu did the procedure. “I searched him in Google and learned that he was actually one of the bests in his field. I never dreamed that the procedure will be done by somebody like him,” she said.
When asked how Mrs. Ocampo would describe the overall patient care she got from the Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, she said everything was fantastic and fabulous.
“I actually told my husband: Maybe all the staff here in Mount Elizabeth were trained in customer service. Because the brand of service I got from the nurses and the doctors, to the ones getting my food order, seems to be the same,” Mrs. Ocampo said. “They were all very friendly, they were all very caring.”
The Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, according to Mrs. Ocampo, really changed the way she looks at patient care. At present, her life is getting back to normal. She is able to do training and traveling again, and is able to eat the food she wants.
Parkway Hospitals Singapore operates four hospitals (Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital and Parkway East Hospital) and several medical centers in Singapore, where multi-disciplinary specialist care is effectively administered in one place.
For international patients, Parkway Hospitals Singapore goes the extra mile and offers dedicated medical evacuation and concierge services through its Patient Assistance Centres; located in Metro Manila, to better serve the Filipino patients who need support and advice in medical and travel arrangements. These queries start from the diagnosis and treatment options, the estimated cost, doctor availability and appointments, and so on.
To make an enquiry or appointment, contact the Parkway Patient Assistance Centre:
Parkway Patient Assistance Centre (Taguig)
2/F Ore Central, 31st Street corner 9th Avenue
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, 1634 Philippines
Tel: +63 2 812-1264 ext 227
Email: cmi-bgc.ph@parkwaypantai.com
Parkway Patient Assistance Centre (Pasig)
Unit 3106 East Tektite Tower
Exchange Road, Ortigas Center
Pasig City 1605, Philippines
Tel: +63 917-560-6498
Email: manila.ph@parkwaypantai.com
