GPHC conducts seven successful scoliosis surgeries

Oct 27, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) earlier this week successfully conducted seven scoliosis surgeries through collaborative efforts with the US non- profit World Pediatrics Project (WPP) mission and the Office of the First Lady.

This was announced by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPHC, Robbie Rambarran on Thursday at a press conference at the hospital’s Resource Centre.

Rambarran said the surgeries were performed on two males and five females between the ages of 14 and 21 years.

While giving a brief overview on how the project came about, the CEO explained that several months ago Guyanese colleagues residing in the Caribbean reached out to doctors at the GPHC and indicated their willingness of the WPP mission coming to Guyana.

The CEO stated that the GPHC is always prepared to collaborate with anyone who is willing to provide care for the people and, “then we had a couple of meetings and then we are here today.”

He noted that following the discussions, the hospital sought feedback from the public through advertisements for persons diagnosed with scoliosis to come forward.

According to Rambarran, approximately 30 persons responded to the advertisement following a screening process, seven patients were selected. While expressing gratitude to the WPP, the Office of the First Lady and staff of the GPHC for the successful surgeries, the CEO noted that the initiative is only the beginning of such exercises. He said too that the GPHC is looking to collaborate again in other specialist areas.

The WPP which has over 20 years in experience was started in 2001, and when moved to do operations within the Caribbean region, it first started in Guyana as the International Hospital for Children. The mission had a brief stint in the country carrying out dentistry and cardiology services among others.

Programme Director of WPP, Sigmund Wiggins said on Thursday that after returning to Guyana after some 20 years, the team is, “extremely happy to be a part of this initiative. We are happy that WPP could partner with GPHC in giving tertiary healthcare to children in Guyana.”

He briefly stated that WPP offers over 35 sub-specialist health services and their main goal is for each child who needs surgical intervention to be able to access same at little to no cost.

“For us as a non-profit organisation, surgical care is given free to the parents thankfully we have willing volunteers who give of their time and expertise in improving the lives and livelihoods of children, and so generally our project offers medical care to children from age 0 to 21. Twenty-one is generally our cut off time but if the child is in the system and for whatever reason they are unable to access care we will extend that to about 23(years) where care can be given to them just to improve the life and livelihoods,” he explained.

Wiggins said while the mission is grateful for the experience here in Guyana, they are looking forward to have other collaborations done in the near future.

Lead surgeon of the 10-member team from WPP, Dr. Steve Hwang told media operatives that from the seven patients who were treated, they all had what he termed, “Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis.”

Idiopathic Scoliosis is one of three different types of scoliosis that cause the spine to develop an abnormal curve.

He expressed hope that all the children who benefitted from surgery should get back to normal activities with no restrictions. Briefly he shared that the procedure involved, with the surgeons performing an incision to the back, “where we expose the spine and we essentially put screws and hooks at the back to fixate the spin and we use rods to straighten up the spine to where we want it. It can be very dangerous and it’s a big incision where blood loss can be a concern, we had to make sure the patients were stable for several hours.”

The seven successful surgeries were done between Monday and Wednesday this past week and each procedure took approximately two to three hours.

It was noted at the press conference that upon discharge, patients would have a three month period of rehabilitation, consisting of physiotherapy, exercising and strengthening of the muscles. They would have to do regular checkups at the hospital’s outpatient clinic to ensure they are okay.

Glenis Wallcott , who spoke to the media on the surgery conducted on her 21-year-old daughter Mickella Wallcott, said that the young woman was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 16 and after noticing the curve in her back, she said her daughter would cry out for pains in her back. This prompted the family to take her to the GPHC for treatment.

“She had the brace and they said let her do a lot of swimming. Now Mickella don’t know to swim that much so what we did, we try to cheer her up because it cut down on her mobility and she could not get to do a couple of stuff like she had wanted to do such as dancing. She love dancing but some moves she could not have done and so we would try to encourage her that some time or someday, it may get better but it worsen,” the woman shared.

The woman added that the family received a call from the GPHC and was informed of the surgery being done by WPP. The parent noted that since the surgery was successfully performed on her daughter, “we are thankful for this initiative because I am hoping that she is going to be better and get to do all that she likes.”

In an invited comment, Mickella told this publication that having had scoliosis, she was not able to walk properly and she said it prevented her from experiencing life’s adventures because she was limited to certain activities due to the pain she was enduring at the time. “To fit in socially it, had a toll on self esteem and self confidence,” she shared.

Having to go through the recovery stage, the young woman said she is looking to move around without restrictions and living a normal life again.

Another parent said her daughter Macy, was discovered with scoliosis some three years ago. After taking her to a local health centre, they were referred to the GPHC. There, the woman stated her daughter underwent therapy and utilised a back brace but she said it did not improve her condition.

Soon after, the family was informed of the scoliosis surgeries being done by the WPP team at the GPHC.

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• Dr. Steve Hwang, GPHC, Mr. Robbie Rambarran, scoliosis surgery, World Pediatrics Project (WPP) Mission

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