Our Frontline Worker of the Week is… Dr. Cyril Giddings

Aug 30, 2020 News

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“Health is a cross cutting challenge. We have to model a multi-sectoral, participatory approach and we must seek to be ever prepared.”

By Sharmain Grainger

On a regular day, those working within the health care system are tasked with a great deal of work usually aimed at helping to save lives. But sometimes saving a life is not always possible but yet health care workers try, at the least, to ensure patients endure minimal suffering before they surrender to their fate and are transported to the great beyond.

With the emergence of COVID-19, the role of these health workers to help save lives has increased astronomically. Many of them have admitted that it is hard for them to see so many patients suffer from a single disease and still be unable to provide them with a cure. It can therefore be easily deduced that caring for patients with COVID-19 could easily be the toughest role a health care worker has ever had to play.
This is in light of the fact that a health care worker usually enters the profession in hope of being able to do everything possible to heal those who are maimed, whether in mind or body. When all possible measures have been applied and the desired outcome is not achieved, it is usually the attending health care workers, and family members too, who feel an intense sense of defeat. So, with more than 1,000 infected with COVID-19 and the more than 30 resulting deaths, many health care workers on the local frontlines are feeling dejected. Many have even started their own research in hopes of coming up with a solution through which they can better care for those who depend on their skills to help fight the dreaded disease that has been causing mayhem across the globe.
TOUCHING LIVES

As a medical doctor, our frontline worker this week, Dr. Cyril Giddings, understands this connection with patients all too well and since venturing into this noble forte two decades ago, he has been doing his part to do right by the many patients whose lives he has had to touch.
“We can enter the lives of people and change it for the better… Sometimes just by listening, and at other times to help relieve persons of pain and suffering,” said the always attentive Dr. Giddings.
Although he is currently not involved in the day to day caring of patients with COVID-19, Dr. Giddings’ job these days is just as important. For the past four years, he has held the position of Director of the National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL) situated at Thomas Street, Georgetown.
In this position, before COVID-19 arrived, Dr. Giddings’ responsibilities included overseeing the laboratory as it supports the maternal and child health programme so that antenatal mothers have access to required tests. The national laboratory also supports “the blood bank testing programme as well as the TB programme. We also respond to new re-emerging diseases that are of public health concern,” said Dr. Giddings of his NPHRL work.
But the entrance of COVID-19 into our shores has added even more to his professional plate.
At this juncture, Dr. Giddings is also tasked with spearheading the management team’s support to staff to test for COVID-19. This is especially important since in order to be properly treated, one must be correctly diagnosed.
Dr. Giddings is therefore the one ensuring that adequate supplies of PPEs for his staff are sourced through the Ministry of Health and he takes full responsibility to assure proper functioning of equipment and the adequate supply of reagents and associated supplies for the national laboratory.
Reflecting on the many tasks he completes, quite dutifully too, Dr. Giddings credits “a background in medical technology and later medicine” as assets to what he is able to do today. Added to this, he has long recognized that no man can operate as an island when it comes to the fight against COVID-19 and because of this, Dr. Giddings noted, “I have been socialized to have a team-approach to challenges. I respect the views of my peers and staff.”
INSPIRED BY TRAGEDY
Many people are inspired to delve into various fortes because of a mentor they had or an ingrained passion, but others, the likes of Dr. Giddings, did so because of tragedy.
But before we elaborate on this aspect of his life, let me share a little about his upbringing.
On September 29, 1963, he entered the world as the youngest of five children born to working class parents: Samuel Giddings, a Blairmont Estate worker, and Clara Bell, a maid.
Dr. Giddings revealed that only two of his four siblings are still alive. Although he currently resides at Golden Grove on the East Coast of Demerara, Dr. Giddings remembers quite vividly that his upbringing was at New Amsterdam, Berbice.
He attended the New Amsterdam Congregational School and later the Berbice High and New Amsterdam Multilateral Schools. Reading and cricket were his favourite pastimes as a young boy.
It might have been his many reading spells that caused him to caress the idea of becoming a doctor after seeing his mother suffer from breast cancer. “I believe the genesis was the death of my mother as a boy…owing to breast cancer. I thought I could help others,” he confessed during a recent interview.
With this mission in mind, Dr. Giddings applied for training, 20 years ago, at the University of Guyana to become a medical doctor.
BE EVER PREPARED
But being a medical professional is so much more than just caring for patients. Dealing with the impact of COVID-19 has thought Dr. Giddings quite a few lessons and chief among them is the fact that “health is a cross cutting challenge. We have to model a multi-sectoral, participatory approach and we must seek to be ever prepared.”
Despite recognizing the role of a medical practitioner as a colossal challenge, he quite candidly shared, “I love the field of health care. We are designated as frontline workers and I need to rise to the challenge.” He is motivated to keep fighting on the frontline since it has not only been just strangers who present as COVID-19 casualties. Dr. Giddings is well acquainted with persons who have been diagnosed as positives. This, however, does not cause him to worry about becoming infected since he is already fully aware of the risks and as far as possible seek to mitigate them.
“I take the same prescribed measures of sanitizing, wearing a face mask and distancing. I also keep alert as to how I am feeling too,” said Dr. Giddings.
A FAMILY MAN
Despite being a dedicated professional, Dr. Giddings still finds time to be a loving husband to his wife Deborrah, a caring father to his children, Abigail and Timothy, and a doting grandfather to his granddaughter, Arianna.
Although COVID-19 has made it hard for some families to enjoy quality time together, this isn’t true for the Giddings’ household. According to Dr. Giddings, “We do still spend time together.”
“We have the consciousness that as we take care as to whom we spend time with outside of the family circle and what safeguards we adopt; we can make our home interactions safer,” he noted.
In fact, his ability to adapt to just about any situation effectively in a caring and attentive manner may be linked to his involvement in church activities. “This has been over decades, inclusive of various positions of leadership,” said Dr. Giddings who presently attends the Bible Victory New Testament Church of God under the leadership of Bishop Terrence Jaskaran.

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