32 benefit from surgeries provided by HERO team

Mar 17, 2018 News

Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, interacts with a woman whose child also underwent surgery

The Health and Education Relief Organization (HERO) has once again visited the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and conducted 32 much-needed surgeries for young children and adults.

The team, which was divided in two, comprised the Sports Medicine and Pediatric Orthopedics, and had a total of 46 individuals from all parts of the world.

The sports medicine group conducted surgeries on 17 persons while the pediatric orthopedics conducted 15 surgeries, some of which ranged from club feet, where children were born with their feet turned in, to dislocated hips.

The organization, which has been in existence for over 18 years, has been visiting Guyana for the more than 12 years, providing some complex surgeries and conducting outreaches, not only in Georgetown but also in some of the more remote areas in Guyana.

During a press conference yesterday at the Georgetown Hospital, Dr John Mitchell, General/Trauma Surgeon and member of the HERO team, said he was happy with the work the team was able to do in Guyana; he said that the team no longer has to conduct certain surgeries, because part of its mission is not to only come to Guyana to conduct surgeries and outreaches, but to also transfer knowledge.

Mitchell explained that when new skills are learnt, those would be passed on to the junior surgeons, who would then be able to perform these complex procedures without the senior surgeons.

He said that when the team visits Guyana, it is to provide the best care possible. “When we come to Guyana it’s to transfer care and conduct care in Guyana exactly how we would when we’re in the United States,” he said.

He thanked the staff at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation for the help provided to them whether they are in or out of Guyana.

“None of this works unless we have a team on the ground; unless we have physicians on the ground that I can call and speak to… and say ‘what are you doing and what do we need,’” he explained.

The HERO team is divided into surgical and medical. The surgical aspect was based at Georgetown Hospital. Persons who would have been looked at by the medical team—who were out doing outreaches—and needed surgery, were sent to GPHC to have it done.

Aside from the surgeries done, Dr Mitchell said the team wanted to work on a breast reconstruction surgery for [a] woman who would have had breast cancer and had to undergo surgery, but the team was unable to do so.

Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, who was also at the press conference, thanked the HERO team for the work they have been being over the years. She said if the government were to quantify the services that the team would have provided for Guyana over the past few years “I am certain that it would be quite a chunk in our budget.”

HERO is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides free high-quality health care and education support to countries throughout the Caribbean.