Paramus, NJ- As reported in last week's TAR int'l, Archbishop Barkev Mardirosian, Primate of Karabagh, recently underwent triple bypass surgery after suffering a heart attack while visiting Catholicos Kerekin II at the latter¹s summer residence in Byurakan.

What was not reported was that the surgery was performed at the Nork-Marash Medical Center (NMMC), a center known for excellence in cardiac care and teaching, which has achieved international standards for care.

Archbishop Mardirosian's surgeon was Dr. Vilen Manukyan, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at NMMC, and his cardiologist was Dr. Narine Gojabashyan.

The NMMC was created by Medical Outreach for Armenia, Inc., Arthur M. Halvajian, Co-Chairman, and Dr. Hagop Hovaguimian. The Pediatric Cardiac Clinic at the Nork-Marash Medical Center is a specialized medical unit providing high quality care for children of Armenia and neighboring CIS countries. The Pediatric Cardiac Clinic provides extensive and free surgical and non-surgical cardiac medical care for Armenian children.

In 1995, NMMC expanded its cardiac and surgical facilities to include the adult population as well , reaching an annual volume of nearly 600 open-heart procedures and over 500 intra-cardiac catheter interventions performed. In 1999, NMMC became widely known in the Caucasus, Russia, and Eastern CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries, and its foreign patient population was as high as 17% of the total. Today the NMMC provides all kinds of surgical and non-surgical medical care, including modern interventional cardiology and minimal-invasive cardiac surgery as well as electro-physiological intervention and radio frequency ablation for arrhythmia treatment. Arrhythmia Control is just beginning to be offered in the United States as a specialty.

The Nork-Marash Medical Center is a teaching hospital for the Armenian National Institute of Health, providing three-year residency training programs for pediatric cardiologists and four-year fellowship programs for cardiac surgeons.

NMMC has received support from Medical Outreach for Armenians, the United Armenian Fund, Armenian General Benevolent Union and Louise Manoogian Simone.

To date, over 45,000 patients have been examined at NMMC, and over 2,700 patients have had surgery. The NMMC has a success rate of 94.8%. The creation of the NMMC has been referred as the most successful medical project developed in the former Soviet Union. The Director of the NMMC is Lida Mouradian.

Further information on the NMMC is available on the Internet at http://www.nmmc.am and the NMMC can be reached through e-mail at heart@nmmc.am, or pediatric@nmmc.am, or arrhyth@nmmc.am. Those wishing to make a tax deductible donation to further NMMC's work may send their checks to Medical Outreach for Armenians, Inc, Post Office Box 1333, Paramus, New jersey 07653, marked for NMMC.