Easter treat for young surgery survivors

AT FIRST glance one would think the children running and dancing around the field at yesterday’s  NWRHA Easter Extravaganza at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) were born free of any major health complications. However, most of them have undergone paediatric cardiac surgery at the facility. One of them, energetic six-year-old Zakiya Gomez, of San Fernando, had major cardiac surgery on Tuesday. According to her mother, Sharon Gomez, she was up and about by Wednesday and was discharged from the hospital yesterday. Gomez praised the surgical team for the new lease on life granted to her daughter.

The over 100 excited children and their parents were treated to an Easter Bonnet Parade, a kite flying competition, bouncy castles, candy filled pinatas, Easter eggs hunt and refreshments. As an added bonus they got on a “soca train” and danced across the dusty field with comedienne Nikki Crosby and Miss Trinidad and Tobago Danielle Jones. The extravaganza, hosted by the NWRHA in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, took approximately a month and a half to organise, according to NWRHA’s Head of Corporate Communications, Charmaine Codrington. The challenge, she said, was contacting over 130 survivors of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery.  Seeing them fully recovered and back to normal was heartwarming and worth the hard work, Codrington said. Dr Kamal Rampersad, Head of the Caribbean Heart Care Medcorp (CHMC), told Newsday at least 60 paediatric heart surgery procedures are performed at EWMSC annually.

He said CHMC was made up of a team of local doctors and physicians who performed the surgical procedures on children between the ages of six months and 16 years. The procedures, he said, which could cost as much as US$30,000 per case if done in the US, cost approximately US$6,800 at the EWMSC. Dr Rampersad said the venture was funded by the Ministry of Health and several NGOs, including Community Chest. He said CHMC had a mortality rate of  less than one percent in the last three years, with a mortality rate of zero for 2002/2003.