Our Frontline Worker of the Week is… Dr. Michael Marks

Mar 28, 2021 News

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“The challenging moment is when someone comes from within the community in a critical state and is too weak to be transferred to a facility in Georgetown. Being the only doctor at the facility, it is challenging when it comes to situations like these…you have no option but to apply wisdom and do the work.”

By Vanessa Braithwaite

Kaieteur News – It has been exactly one year since Dr. Michael Marks was appointed the Coordinator of the Region 10’s COVID-19 Task Force and, according to him, he has not regretted taking up this mantle. In this capacity, he is not only tasked with managing the operations of the Task Force at the regional level, but he is mandated to treat COVID-19 patients at the Upper Demerara Hospital, which is the main isolation facility in Region 10.
In fact, our featured frontline worker is the only doctor managing the facility. But taking on such a role, as expected, has not been a walk in the park. He revealed, during a recent interview with Kaieteur News, that he has experienced many challenges. However, Dr. Marks made it pellucid that the challenges do not outweigh the satisfaction he gets from seeing patients beat COVID-19.
One of his most satisfying moments was seeing a 90-year-old resident of Linden, after spending more than one month in the institution, becoming COVID-19 free.
Moments like those confirm, for him, that medicine is indeed his actual calling. Dr. Marks has a desire to venture into the field of medicine ever since he was a student attending the Christianburg Wismar Secondary School (CWSS). Moreover, he pursued science subjects, in order to qualify for a government scholarship to study medicine in Cuba. At CWSS, he was integrally involved in the health club and was even appointed the Regional Representative for health clubs in Region 10. While he had a knack, since then, for things medicine, he said it was his mother who gave him that extra nudge to pursue his dreams. “It is not the what, but the who…my mother always worked hard with me; she never failed to motivate me, even when I had shortcomings. She continued to motivate me and pushed me to pursue my goals,” he said.
In 2009, Dr. Marks was granted the scholarship he was aiming for. He read for his degree in medicine and was even appointed President of the 2006 graduating batch of students. After his return, he spent one year as an intern at the Suddie Hospital on the Essequibo Coast, before settling at the Linden Hospital Complex. When Region 10 recorded its first positive COVID-19 case, Dr. Marks was ready and willing to lead the Region’s response. “I love my job, I love what I do. I can tell you that throughout, we have had challenges, and while those challenges were never related to resources. You have to remember on a global perspective COVID-19 was new to everybody, we had information, but we had valid information as well misconceptions and so the biggest challenge for us was basically to interpret what to use in terms of valid information,” Dr. Marks explained.
He added, “There were so many different treatment regimes and so many things, and so the biggest challenge as a COVID-19 Coordinator, guided by a Task Force, was to make firm decisions.”
According to Dr. Marks, he has had to make firm decisions, relative to management, to ensure the positive cases in the region remain low, and while he always got the support from the other staff members and the other regional officials, such as the Regional Health Officer, it was very challenging to manage simultaneously the region and the hospital, as the only doctor. Above all, he has the greatest responsibility of remaining safe, since he has a family to go home to. “The challenging moment is when someone comes from within the community in a critical state and is too weak to be transferred to a facility in Georgetown. Being the only doctor at the facility, it is challenging when it comes to situations like these…you have no option but to apply wisdom and do the work.”
Under Dr. Mark’s watch, over 700 patients have recovered from COVID-19. He revealed that treating patients with COVID-19 is not only about administering medicine and other treatment but also about giving physiological care as patients need reassurance that being tested positive is not an automatic death sentence. “The psychological part is very important, to give them that comfort and that reassurance during that time; spend time talking and counselling them, it’s like you have become a family member,” he explained. While playing this role, he keeps in mind his favourite quote: ‘Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also love of humanity’. He related, “It tells us that our love for humanity should be in the way we treat people as medical doctors because after all the medicine is given and that patient becomes better, the only thing they will remember is how they were treated.”
Dr. Marks commended the nurses at the institution for doing an excellent job in this regard, and for being a support system to him. After the patient is discharged from the hospital, he noted that members of the community must also strive to be their “brothers and sisters’ keeper in providing that psychological support.” Now that the COVID-19 vaccination campaign has rolled out, he is encouraging persons to take the vaccine in an effort to combat the virus.

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