NPO HEART SAVING PROJECT

Local Examination in Khentii

In 2024, we conducted regional medical examinations in Mongolia twice a year. In May, we went to Dondogovi and Govisumber and in September we went to Khentii province.

The activities in September were carried out jointly by the local medical examination team in the region and the catheter treatment team (Cath 3) in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
On Saturday, September 14th, participants gathered at Narita International Airport at 11:00 a.m. The participants departed from Narita at 2:40 p.m. on a Mongolian Miat Airlines flight and arrived at Mongolia’s Chinghis Khan International Airport at 7:15 p.m.。The local medical examination team has six members in total, led by Dr. Masamichi Tamura, Dr. Kumiyo Matsuo (Osaka Maternal and Child Medical Center), Dr. Eiji Ehara (Nagayoshi General Hospital), Dr. Shun Yanai (Showa University Hospital), Dr. Yoshiko Kudo (Showa University Hospital), and nurse Tomoko Taniguchi (Sapporo Medical University Hospital). After arriving at Chinghis Khan International Airport, the catheterization team and yhe local examination team moved to Ulaanbaatar city, checked in at Bayangol Hotel, and then had dinner to end the day.

First trip in a Cessna

We left the hotel at 5am the next morning and arrived at Boyant Obor Airport, Ulaanbaatar’s domestic airport, at 6am. At 6:30 a.m., we boarded a chartered Cessna and headed straight for Khentii Province.

Joining us from Ulaanbaatar are Mr. Ulka and Ms. Oyunner from Mongolian NPO, Dr. Batsuri from the National Center for Maternal and Child Health, and the secretary to the mayor of Ulaanbaatar.

This local medical examination was supported by Ulaanbaatar City. This is because Mayor Nyambatar’s birthplace is connected to Khentii province. The above Cessna is a small 11-seater aircraft owned by Ulaanbaatar City, and we used it for both round trips. Thanks to this, the travel time that would normally take 6 or 7 hours by car was reduced to 1 hour each way, making it incredibly convenient.

 

Khentie Provincial General Hospital

The destination we will be visiting is Khentii Province, which is approximately 300km east of Ulaanbaatar and is said to be the birthplace of Chinghis Khan, and is said to have been secretly buried here after his death.The area is 80,311 km2, the population is approximately 70,000 people (2018), and the prefectural capital was formerly called Undurkhan, but is now a town called Chinghis, where the Khentii Provincial General Hospital, where we conducted our activities, is located. After arriving, we first checked into Khanburgedel Hotel and had breakfast there. Afterwards, we met with the governor at the Khenti Provincial Government Office, and arrived at the Khenti Provincial General Hospital for this activity, just before 10am.

Signboards were placed along the hallways of the hospital to welcome people to the Heart Saving Project. At the hospital, the first thing we did after arriving was to greet the hospital director, then move to a room that we could use and set up for the examination, and then the examination finally began.

The room provided was quite spacious. A reception desk was set up at the entrance of the venue, and members of a Mongolian NPO handled the reception.
Inside, we worked in three teams, starting with the interview and then splitting into two groups to perform the ultrasound examination.At 1 p.m., we took a lunch break with a delivered lunch prepared by the hospital, and then the afternoon session started. During the ultrasound examination, Dr. Ebara team was joined by Dr. Badtsuri of the the National Center for Maternal and Child Healt and Dr. Saran, an adult cardiologist at Khentii Provincial General Hospital, and Dr. Ebara was also supervising two Mongolian doctors at the same time as the ultrasound examination.Dr. Badtsuri also underwent three months of training in the United States, and was very motivated and did a great job at this local medical examination. Dr. Matsuo and Dr. Yanai took time to provide guidance to Dr. Badtsuri and Saran while performing ultrasounds. Dr. Tamura was supervising the whole project while looking at individual situations. The first day ended at 5pm.

Of the visitors, 80% were patients who had been receiving medical examinations at local hospitals and were undergoing ultrasound examinations for the first time during our visit, and 20% were patients who had already been treated at a general hospital in Ulaanbaatar, such as the the National Center for Maternal and Child Health of Mongolia, or a hospital in Beijing, or were undergoing follow-up observation for treatment. Both patients who had undergone treatment had been successfully repaired.。

Interaction with local nomads

After completing the medical examination on the first day, we visited the home of a nomadic family. The family had come to get a medical checkup, and they had been asked to stop by in the evening, so we all went to see them. They were a typical nomadic family in the countryside, and we were treated to airag (horse milk liquor), hardened yogurt, and snuff in the ger, and enjoyed the taste of Mongolia for a while. Mongolia’s summer sun sets after 9 p.m., making the daytime feel very long.

On the second day, the examination started at 10 a.m. and ended at 1 p.m. Dr. Saran from the local hospital participated in the echo screening activities with us on the second day as well. A total of 155 people underwent ultrasound examinations: 88 on the first day and 67 on the second day.After the medical examination on the second day, we had lunch at the invitation of the director of the provincial hospital, and then boarded a Cessna and returned to Ulaanbaatar.This on-site health checkup took about 2 hours round trip, so we were able to take our time in screening and providing guidance. Also, on the day the examination activity ended, we were able to return to Ulaanbaatar in the evening, so it was very easy on our physical strength.