Retired Couple Boost CWM Hospital with $45K Machine
Aportable electroencephalogram (EEG machine) that will assist medical and the paediatrics team in diagnosing epilepsy and its further management was donated yesterday to the CWM Hospital’s Children’s Ward. The machine worth $45,000 was donated by. Peter Long and his wife Margaret who run Children of Fiji.
The organisation is dedicated to enhancing the education of children, meeting their needs and counteracting poverty of the children in the South Pacific
The retired teachers, Mr and Mrs Long have dedicated their years
Dr Shrish Acharya, the Head of Department Medicine, at the CWM Hospital said that they have conducted over 500 EEG’s in the last five years.
post retirement to bringing change and improvement to the lives of the children in the South Pacific. Mrs Long said: “A couple of years ago we came across a family and the child was having epileptic seizures and that is probably where our interest in this area started. “We were contacted by the father who said that the medication was not working and although there was another medication available it was far too expensive.”
She added that a doctor in England who had previously been a volunteer at the Hilton Special School in Fiji, was able to recommend a combination of drugs for that child.
She added that after going onto those drugs, the child who was having three fits a day had reduced to three in a week, then three in a month and now he hasn’t had a fit for a long time.
“So this doctor in England asked us about the facilities in Fiji and that is how we came up with this idea,” she said. Dr Shrish Acharya, the Head of Department - Medicine, at the CWM Hospital said that they have conducted over 500 EEG’s in the last five years. Their patients include those from the region.
“I get calls where children have not been doing good in school because they are having seizures and they are being taken to other forms of therapy that are not medical therapy,” he said.
“And when we actually diagnose and show to the family that this is not a superstitious thing, it is actually a sickness and this is proof, then children and patients get treatment,” he added.