Latest update April 7th, 2025 6:08 AM
GPHC reports success with Emergency Medicine residency programme
Mahadeo Persaud in the Emergency Room at the Georgetown Hospital.
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is reporting a successful emergency medicine residency programme.
Under the programme, teaching staff of Vanderbilt University train local doctors in emergency medicine over a three-year period. The programme outline is approved by the University of Guyana and upon completion of the programme, the doctors gain a Masters in Emergency Medicine, according to Michael Khan, the Chief Executive Officer of GPHC. The success of the programme is being measured by the case of 30-year-old Mahadeo Persaud.
On March 8, he arrived at the Accident and Emergency (A&E) in an unconscious state.. He had been struck in the right side of the head with a piece of wood 12 hours before. His wife had difficulty rousing him the next day.
According to the hospital, he started having seizures. He arrived at the A&E and was listed as “Epilepticus” with convulsions recurring every few minutes, each one longer and more violent than the previous one.
He was taken back to the resuscitation area. The seizures were controlled with a combination of medications, and the patient underwent imaging of the skull and brain with a computed tomography scanner.
The CT scan revealed a large traumatic intracranial hemorrhage. A surgeon took the patient directly to the operating theatre for an emergency craniotomy. The pressure on the brain was relieved and the bleeding was controlled.
Within 48 hours the patient was awake and alert– eating breakfast and asking to go home.
This story, which the hospital calls “a modern medical miracle” illustrates the success that GPHC has had in training young doctors to become highly skilled specialists.
The Emergency Medicine physician who effectively stabilized the patient is a resident in GPHC’s thriving new Emergency Medicine residency.
The surgeon who saved his life in the theatre is a graduate of GPHC’s post- graduate programme in Surgery.
Vanderbilt University has been committed to educational programmes at the Georgetown Public Hospital in Guyana since 2002 and is expanding these efforts since October last year.
One of the University’s faculty members, Nico Forget, is based in Guyana as the Residency Director of the unique Emergency Medicine training program.
The University has also been involved in a variety of other training programmes in Guyana in addition to the residency programme. Recent courses include neonatal resuscitation, wound care, nursing triage and emergency ultrasound.
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