GPHC conducts successful kidney transplant surgery on Grenadian doctor

Jul 20, 2021 News

– Local doctor also benefits from service

By Alliyah Allicock

Kaieteur News – Headed by Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Kishore Persaud, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on June 14, 2021 performed the institution’s first international kidney transplant procedure on Grenadian doctor, Germaine Bristol.

Seated from left: Yaniss Abrams – kidney donor, Dr. Nyamekeye Griffith – recipient, Dr. Germaine Bristol and her son Gerron Bristol. Also standing is Minister Frank Anthony (at centre), and Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, the transplant team and other hospital officials.

The successful procedure, which was regarded as a milestone, was conducted by Dr. Persaud and his team. An elated doctor Dr. Bristol is now able to live a normal life again after her 19-year-old son, Gerron Bristol, donated a kidney to facilitate the procedure.
Dr. Bristol, during a press conference yesterday at the GPHC, told members of the media that it has been a long and challenging journey since being diagnosed with kidney failure back in 2012. Since the kidney transplant procedure is not readily offered in Grenada, the doctor said that Guyana was highly recommended to her. “Number one, it was available to me, the US was not available to me, Trinidad was not available to me, but Guyana was,” Dr. Bristol related. Not only was the surgery being done free in Guyana, the doctor noted that Dr. Persaud was also highly recommended to her.
In expressing gratitude, Dr. Bristol mentioned “the former and current Ministers of Health, the administration of the hospital, the doctors, the transplant team and the people of Guyana for allowing me this opportunity to come and have my transplant, and to my son for so generously donating a kidney.”
Commenting on his team’s success, Dr. Persaud noted that the successful completion of the procedure is an indication that he and his team have not only achieved success on local patients but have risen to the standard whereby they could have taken “one of the most challenging patients and be able to transplant her successfully.”
But the procedure was not without challenges. He noted that they had their first complication called the Delayed Graph Function. He said “that is when we transplanted the kidney, it took three weeks before that kidney started working. Most of the time, we would see the kidney work right away on the operation table.”
With the help of other doctors on the operation team, he said that they were able to “pull her through that and get her kidney back to its normal functioning.”
Having achieved this milestone, the surgeon stressed the need for the relevant authorities to work together in order to get the transplant legislation passed so that transplantation can be advanced in Guyana and around the Caribbean Region.
Yesterday at the briefing too, it was revealed that the team on June 28, last, had completed another successful transplant on another patient, local doctor Nyamekeye Griffith, whose donor was her cousin, Yaniss Abrams.
Dr. Griffith just like the Grenadian doctor expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the entire transplant team for their unselfish service.
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, who was at the conference lauded the success of the transplant team and stated that the government is committed to ensuring that doctors have the necessary tools when conducting their procedures. The country, he added, has what it takes to become the “centre of excellence here for health, for the Caribbean, to offer a range of services.”

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