Answer:
A woman should try her best to seek medical treatment from a female doctor. If that is not feasible — because a female doctor is not easily available or one is not satisfied with her medical treatment or there is some other valid (shar’i) excuse for not resorting to her treatment — then it will be permissible for her to go to a male doctor. In this case, it will be permissible for the male doctor to see and/or touch those parts of her body which he needs to see and/or to touch in order to diagnose or treat her illness.
In your situation, if a female patient comes to you and there are female heart surgeons available, you should advise her to resort to a female surgeon. However, if there are no female heart surgeons available or if the patient needs urgent attention and it would not be feasible to advise her to resort to a female surgeon then it will be permissible for you to operate on her provided that you only see and touch those parts of her body which will be required for the procedure. All other parts should be covered.
(Al-Fatawa Al-Hindiyaa: 5/330, Maktaba Rashidiya; Kitabul Fatawa: 6/208)
Mufti Faizal Riza
13/11/2011