This Saturday sees a first-ever 3Talk episode that forms part of the special Heart awareness drive that's been happening called Meet Wally's Heart.
The rest of this week's shows will continue to focus on heart disease in a build-up to Saturday's special that will broadcast a real-life open heart surgery on Wally, a volunteer cardiovascular candidate.
The surgery's going to be broadcast live on SABC3 on
Saturday night, 2 August between 20h00 and 22h00.The line-up and timesA look at the 3Talk line-up for the rest of the week until the surgery:
Save The Heart
On: Today (Wednesday, 30 August 2008)
A look at how to live healthy life for a healthy heart.
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Meet Wally's Medical Team
On: Thursday, 31 August 2008
Noeleen introduces the medical team who'll be operating on Wally on Saturday.
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Heart To Heart: Real Life StoriesOn: Friday, 1 August 2008
Guests share their heart stories, looking at their struggles with the disease and how they beat it.
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Open Heart Surgery Live
On: Saturday, 2 August 2008 at 20h00
Wally undergoes his surgery at the Netcare Milpark hospital.
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In a move it hopes will motivate South Africans into taking preventative action, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa will make history by televising a live broadcast of a two-hour single bypass open heart surgery on national television on Saturday, 2 August 2008.
The programme forms part of the HSFSA’s Meet Wally’s Heart Project, a one-week initiative aimed at getting South Africans to sit up and take notice of the very real threat of cardiovascular disease stemming from poor lifestyle choices.
The special broadcast will be the first time that South African viewers are able to see this kind of operation broadcast in real time through every step of the process.
“The Meet Wally’s Heart Project is a heart health television education campaign aimed at reaching South Africans on a grand scale, " said Michelle Kearney, Director of Communications of the HSFSA.
"In its entirety it will see a carefully selected candidate who presents with cardiovascular disease, undergoing pre-surgery tests, expert consultation and finally single bypass open heart surgery within a one week period."
Kearney said the project had been backed by extensive research and planning. The HSFSA has been engaged in consultations with leading cardiologists and thoracic surgeons in Gauteng in preparation for the broadcast.
The surgery will be broadcast live from Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg with a camera crew placed inside the operating theatre for the duration of the single bypass.
It will be interspersed with pre-recorded footage and crossovers to a custom studio environment located in close proximity to the operating room, where a panel of experts will be interviewed by 3Talk's Noeleen Maholwane Sangqu, providing a commentary of what the surgeon is doing at each stage of the operation.
Kearney said rather than being sensationalist, the process was being handled in an extremely sensitive manner and that the overall integrity of the project and, most importantly the patient’s right to be treated with dignity, would be upheld at all times. All regulations pertaining to the presence of the camera crew within the operating theatre were being adhered to, she said.
“It is a dramatic move, but one we view as totally necessary right now given the alarming incidences of heart disease in South Africa," she said. We are extremely humbled to find there have been patients who are willing to share their story as their contribution towards making South Africans aware of what they can do in their everyday lives to prevent others from becoming yet another heart disease statistic."
Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer affecting people at a younger age than ever before, and the most common cause of death in South Africa after HIV/AIDS.
It is responsible for 19.8% of all deaths each year and one in three men and one in four women will suffer from heart-related illnesses before they reach 60.
A report released last year by the HSFSA in partnership with the Medical Research Council showed that while HIV/AIDS is currently ravaging the 18 -35 age group in South Africa, the country was also losing a significant number in the working age group of 35 - 64 years due to cardiovascular disease.
Actuarial projections also predict that heart disease and other chronic diseases will have increased by 2010, with a 41% increase in premature heart-related deaths expected between 2007 and 2030.
Shan Biesman-Simons, director of nutrition and education at the HSFSA, said while the project includes a hefty shock factor, its main objective is to show South Africans what they can do to ensure the health of their own hearts.
“This graphic reality television screening will show that cardiovascular disease is a harsh reality, but a largely preventable one all the same.
“People have a fair degree of control over risk factors like stress, obesity, inactive lifestyles, poor nutrition, smoking, hypertension, diabetes and high blood cholesterol, all of which contribute significantly to the health of our hearts,” she said.
South Africans are now consuming a diet which is far higher in kilojoules, salt and animal fat, processed foods and added sugar, and far lower in fruit and vegetables and unrefined carbohydrates than in previous generations. Coupled with predominantly inactive lifestyles, none of this is good news for the heart,” said Biesman-Simons.
Small lifestyle changes and moderate physical activity like brisk walking, swimming, dancing or participating in non-competitive sports for just 30 minutes per day can reduce the risk of heart attack and give one three times the chance of surviving such an attack.
Kearney urged South Africans to take simple measures such as changing one’s diet to a heart friendly one, incorporating exercise into their daily routine and getting to ‘know their numbers’ by having their cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure levels tested regularly.
Currently about 195 South Africans - or 13 minibus loads - die each day because of some form of heart and blood vessel disease (cardiovascular disease).
Of these, heart attacks are responsible for about 33 deaths per day and are twice as prevalent among men as in women, while about 60 people die a day due to strokes and about 37 due to heart failure.
Other forms of cardiovascular disease claim 65 lives daily.
More about Wally
Less than two weeks after his 52nd birthday, a Gauteng businessman will give South African viewers a rather unconventional gift of his own: the opportunity to learn some very important lessons from his own difficult journey of cardiovascular disease.
The father of two and grandfather, known as Wally and married to Sarie, has agreed to go under the knife on live television on Saturday, 2 August 2008 as part of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa’s heart health television education initiative, Meet Wally’s Heart.
Doctors will perform single bypass open heart surgery on him to rectify narrowed arteries that could put him at risk of having a massive heart attack at any given moment.
In 2000 Wally had the first warning bells of heart disease and was put on medication to control his elevated cholesterol and blood pressure. At the time he had a stent inserted to offer him an improved quality of life.
A Type II diabetes diagnosis followed in 2004 after Wally survived the traumatic experience of almost being run over by a large concrete truck which crashed into his home and destroyed part of it. While partly attributed to the shock of this experience, Wally’s Type II diabetes is also the result of his very poor dietary choices.
He generally skips breakfast and lunch and admits that his meals only occasionally include the recommended portions of fruit and vegetables. His meals include a lot of red meat, ranging from braais to bangers and mash and curries, as opposed to more balanced meals incorporating fruit and vegetables.
Wally is also heavy smoker who gets through around 25 cigarettes per day. Smoking is known to lead to a build up of fatty deposits in the arteries, making it difficult for blood to be carried from the heart to the rest of the body.
Although he used to drink quite excessively, he says he has cut down on this significantly.
Undoubtedly the stress of being a partner in a motor vehicle maintenance and panelbeating business may have also had a big role to play in Wally’s deteriorating heart health.
Although he enjoys golf, Wally admits his exercise routine is almost non-existent and only plays the sport around three times in two months. His other physical activity is limited to a couple of rounds of tenpin bowling played via his Nintendo Wii gaming console and he admits to being an armchair bound sports fanatic, mostly watching matches from the comfort of his living room.
His message for the public and for CVD patients in particular is simple: “Live a balanced, healthy lifestyle, exercise regularly and follow a healthy diet.
“Bad habits catch up with you later in life, so don’t ever think ‘that can never happen to me!’
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