Soweto hospital performs its first heart surgery

JOHANNESBURG - The Bheki Mlangeni Hospital in Soweto has made history.

In keeping with South Africa's pioneering tradition in heart surgery, the hospital performed its first such operation.

WATCH: Pioneering Surgery | Heart surgery patient recovering

The patient, Tumisang Motsikwa was stabbed while trying to assist a pupil after a mugging.

Ismail Ebrahim, the surgeon who led the procedure at the Bheki Mlangeni Hospital, said, "These kinds of operations, ordinarily at a tertiary or regional hospital because of the type of trauma and the urgency of the case. In this particular patient's (case) he was too unstable to be transferred out so we opted to operate on him on the premises."