KARACHI, Feb 18: A team of Korean surgeons and paramedical staff is in Pakistan these days to perform surgical operations on poor patients. On Monday and Tuesday the ten-member team performed, free of cost, a total of 12 operations at the Civil Hospital, Karachi.

The operations that were undertaken are called “cleft lip and palate operations” in medical parlance. The disease which required the said operation is not uncommon in Pakistan as on an average one in 10,000 people are hit by it.

On Tuesday afternoon Dawn visited the CHK’s operation theatres where Prof Ill-Woo Nam and Prof Pill-Hoon Choung were busy in performing the operations. Some Korean paramedical staff were assisting the two surgeons.

A member of the Korean team — Byoung-Moo Seo — said the team which represented the Korean Cleft Lip and Palate Association had visited Pakistan last year as well. It had gone to Egypt as well.

The CHK’s medical superintendent, Prof Noshad Shaikh, said in local private hospitals the said operation cost anything between Rs150,000 and Rs100,000. “But here these operations are being done absolutely free of cost,” he said.

Prof Noshad said some local doctors had been assisting the Korean team. “We have asked some Pakistani doctors to assist the Korean team so that technology and know-how is transferred.”

He said the Korean team was slated to perform thirty-two operations in all. The selection of the people to be operated upon had been done by the Koreans themselves.

One-step operations were preferred over multiple-step operations, said Prof Noshad. “The other factor taken into consideration by the Koreans was the income of the patients.”

The CHK’s medical superintendent disclosed that the Korean team had brought all kinds of equipment and even medicine with them. “They have also brought their own instruments which they will leave here when they go back to their country.”

He claimed that some well-known hospitals of the country had requested the Korean team to take their operations to them. “But the Korean team decided to stick to the Civil Hospital. They were here last year too, you know.”

Mrs Kauser Pervez of the Poor Patients Aid Society pointed out that some Korean surgeons charged thousands of dollars for one operation back home. “So we are extremely thankful to them for performing the operations free here.”

In response to a question, she said the Koreans’ visit had been sponsored by a local electronic company.