Forty-seven benefit from joint replacement surgery at GPHC
-as Operation Walk comes to Guyana
A collaboration between the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and Operation Walk Maryland, saw 47 persons benefiting from much needed joint replacement surgery over the weekend.
Operation Walk Maryland is a private, not-for-profit, volunteer medical service organisation that provides free surgical treatment for patients in developing countries and in the United States.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Dr David Samaroo, Head of the Orthopaedic Department at the GPHC, related that attempts were first made to establish contact with Operation Walk Maryland in 2014.
However, he said, this trail went cold until last year when the conversation was once again picked up in hopes of having the team visit Guyana.
Fortunately for the GPHC, the Maryland team visited Trinidad last year for similar surgeries which required them to return to do patient follow-ups. As a spinoff of this, the team was invited to Guyana, and participated in a high-level meeting with the Minister of Public Health and the Chief Executive Officer of the GPHC. This was followed by serious planning earlier this year to have 50 joint replacement surgeries done at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Dr Samaroo explained that there was a record of 170 patients who required joint replacement surgery. Screening began in April of this year, and was followed by a second one in July, and a final one last Friday, when patients were selected to undergo surgery.
Stabroek News understands that the first four surgeries were done last Friday after the final screening clinic. In the end, the team was able to complete 47 surgeries with 53 joint replacements done between Friday and Monday.
According to Dr Khaleshwar Ramcharran, one of the surgeons in the orthopaedic department at the GPHC, they were able to operate on 47 patients, six of whom required dual procedures, which brought the total to 53 joint replacements being done. He said the team worked on