Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
Health Minister meets, interacts with patients and Baby Heart reps.
A total of 18 children were recently identified for open heart surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). The operations, which commenced on November 21 and are slated to conclude on Saturday (December 5), are being conducted by the International Children’s Heart Foundation which is known as the Baby Heart Foundation.
Thus far a total of 12 surgeries have been completed.
Minister of Public Health, Dr George Norton, (at centre) during the recent GPHC visit.
Minister of Public Health, Dr George Norton, on Monday visited the Surgical Paediatric ward of the GPHC and interacted with the children scheduled to undergo surgery. He also met with volunteers and staff members attached to the Baby Heart Foundation as well as parents of the children.
This is the Baby Heart Foundation’s third visit to Guyana. The team had previously visited in May and June of this year, at which time 14 and 12 surgeries were completed respectively.
The team, which comprises medical professionals such as a perfusionist, surgeons, cardiologists, nurses and a respiratory therapist, has been working along with local health workers.
In addition to performing open heart surgeries, the Baby Heart Foundation has also been helping to build the capacity of the GPHC to cater to paediatric cardiac patients.
This includes the training of local personnel such as: nurses, paediatricians, anaesthetists and surgeons.
The Foundation has also been instrumental in helping the GPHC to setup a paediatric ICU unit complete with all necessary implements. Several donations valued at millions of dollars have also been made to the hospital to facilitate the paediatric heart surgery programme.
With the support of the Foundation, Guyana has been able to reduce the cost of sending children abroad for paediatric heart surgeries and simultaneously cut cost to train medical personnel to deliver paediatric cardiac care.
The Baby Heart Foundation is a not for profit organisation that is based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, and has been in existence since 1993. According to Cardiac Surgeon and Chief Executive Officer of Clinical Operations, Dr Rodrigo Soto, the organisation has 22 years of experience in sustainable and independent paediatric cardiac services around the world.
It has been able to offer paediatric heart care, through the expertise of mainly volunteer medical practitioners, to 33 countries, and has thus far completed in excess of 7,000 surgeries. Its contributions to these counties has allowed for many of them to eventually offer crucial paediatric services independently.
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