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FM
Former Member

13 children complete heart surgeries at GPHC, 6 others benefit from cardiac interventions

Written by , Published in News, Georgetown, GINA, May 8, 2015, Source

 

Director of the Echocardiography Education Programme at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Dr. Debra Isaac, today reported that during the first mission to begin paediatric cardiac surgery in Guyana, 13 children had operations and six had cardiac catheterization, (for clinical cardiac conditions), none of which had been done before in Guyana.

 

The surgeries were carried out through the collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Health with support from International Children’s Heart Foundation, known commonly as Baby Heart.

 

 Children who have already had surgery along with those waiting sit with their mothers as Dr. Debra Isaac chats with them.

Children who have already had surgery along with those waiting sit with their mothers as Dr. Debra Isaac chats with them.

 

Discharge of the children operated on was done quite expeditiously too, since the surgeries were excellently conducted. Dr. Isaac observed that the team already has a list of about 30 children to be considered for urgent surgery when the group returns on June 20.

 

 

Baby Heart has donated equipment which will remain at the GPHC. Dr. Isaac pointed out that these equipment were used during the surgeries and post-operative management. However, she noted that all the equipment would be used in future, not only by the Baby Heart programme, but for intensive care for other children in Guyana.

 

The mandate of the entire programme is to educate people to conduct the exercise themselves. She stated that it is not easy, as “it takes a lot of repeated education and exposure, but eventually, we would like the local physicians and the local health care workers here to utilise all these equipment and to expand their use.”

 

Dr. Isaac explained that on the team’s return, it would be with the same mission of doing cardiac interventions and surgeries. She observed too that the members would be able to do “more children, more angiograms, more surgeries, and more training of the staff here.”

 

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the GPHC Michael Khan noted that this was a big boost in the health care provided to the citizens of Guyana, “Baby Heart is coming back to do more surgeries between June 20 to July 4,  he added.

 

Baby Heart is a non-profit organisation which expands its reach worldwide through travel, to assist in paediatric cardiac surgeries, while at the same time build capacity among the local health practitioners in this regard. The foundation has been in existence for over 20 years and has successfully completed 7,500 surgeries in 32 countries.

 

The team which conducted the surgeries on the children patients at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.  Mothers with their children are in the back row.

 

Dr. Isaac noted that the 18-team members, both local and international health care providers, have given beautiful memories to the families and the children themselves during the time they spent with them.

 

Prior to these interventions, children were sent abroad for surgeries and did not benefit from proper follow-up care. However, with the help of the Health Ministry and Dr. Marissa Seepersaud, paediatric surgeon at the GPHC, a Guyana Paediatric Steering Committee was established, with the aim of identifying children who needed surgery and others who were for institute screening.

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Congratulation to the doctors and staff that make this all possible. These children will forever be grateful for these professionals that change their lives for the better. 

FM
Originally Posted by Demerara_Guy:

 Children who have already had surgery along with those waiting sit with their mothers as Dr. Debra Isaac chats with them.

Children who have already had surgery along with those waiting sit with their mothers as Dr. Debra Isaac chats with them.


 

The team which conducted the surgeries on the children patients at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.  Mothers with their children are in the back row.

 

13 children complete heart surgeries at GPHC, 6 others benefit from cardiac interventions, Written by , Published in News, Georgetown, GINA, May 8, 2015, Source

Congratulations to the medical staff and best wishes to the children.

FM

Dumbass_Guy, is how many threads you gonna start on this?

Move to Guyana if things so great.

Many dead babies at GPHC’s morgue are unclaimed – Hospital

May 8, 2015 | By | Filed Under News 

The startling number of dead babies stored at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) morgue has been linked to relatives failing to retrieve the remains or opting to do so at a late date.

Father of the dead baby Roger Smith

Father of the dead baby Roger Smith

But according to Government Pathologist, Dr Nehaul Singh, while there is currently a high number of babies at the hospital; the situation is not one that developed overnight. “People are always claiming that they are coming for it (dead babies) and the hospital cannot bury the body if they (say) they are coming for it,” asserted Dr Singh. This state of affairs was also confirmed by Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michael Khan, who reiterated that the hospital has for some time been dealing with the overcrowding situation, since some families have not been claiming remains. This publication first highlighted the overcrowding state of affairs at the GPHC’s morgue in its Thursday’s Edition. According to Roger Smith, a father who claimed that his dead baby was misplaced in the morgue, he visited the public hospital on Wednesday to retrieve the body of his child but workers there were unable to honour his request. But according to Dr Singh, although the morgue workers had stopped off to attend to a body that is involved in an ongoing police matter, they however eventually located the man’s child. According to Smith, his eight day- old -son was born at the West Demerara Regional Hospital but two days later he was transferred to the Georgetown Hospital. The child, the man informed, was diagnosed with jaundice. Smith related that his baby was administered what he believes was antibiotics “or something like that” but based on his observation his child’s condition got worse. “He was placed on oxygen then he was placed on life support, eventually he succumbed,” said Smith. He is suspicious about his child’s demise. “This thing with jaundice and the baby dying is kinda weird,” he said. The man related that while at the hospital’s morgue “I see like four to five drawers with babies, like 20 babies in a drawer…all just thrown in like that, like pieces of meat, no tags, no nothing, no records properly.” “They keep pulling out baby after baby looking for (the baby’s) sex and I see a whole set of babies wrapped up with no tag just tossed and thrown in,” added Smith. According to him, he waited for two and a half hours while morgue workers searched but failed to locate his dead child. “I don’t know what’s going on; these people are sick,” asserted Smith as he recalled how the morgue workers stopped off searching for his son to attend to the parents of at least two other dead babies but were also unable to locate those. Other parents at the morgue on Wednesday were too emotional to share their concerns. “They are not finding babies, right now is just adults (bodies) they finding,” observed Smith who added, that the explanation given by the morgue workers for their inability to locate the remains of the babies is that “the man who is supposed to know is not around.” However, the hospital in a statement issued yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the article published by this newspaper and even labeled it as “deliberately misleading.” But the hospital’s statement reflected a clear lack of communication between the Public Relations Department, and that of the office of the CEO as this publication had made contact with Mr. Khan who acknowledged the state of affairs but was not in a position on Wednesday to give a formal response. Although the hospital’s Public Relations Department sought to emphasise that Smith’s baby was located, no effort was made to admit that it was after a few hours. The hospital also sought to label as “untrue” claims that dead babies in the morgue are untagged pointing out that “bodies are always tagged so deceased persons can be easily identified.” It was underscored too that “currently there are a number of dead babies at the hospital morgue; as families sometimes refuse to collect the bodies. In these instances, the hospital cannot bury the bodies until a certain amount of time has elapsed and it is determined that the families will not take on burial responsibilities. “This is since burying someone whose family turns up to uplift their body can put the hospital in serious hot water,” added the statement. The hospital has claimed too, that thus far for the year it has facilitated 17 burials.

Mitwah

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