Free surgery for 75 children

HEALTH MINISTER John Rahael announced recently that 75 underprivileged children with physical deformities will benefit from a programme of free orthopaedic and cosmetic surgery provided this month by the American NGO, Operation Rainbow. Rahael said Cabinet agreed to Operation Rainbow’s visit. The organisation has a 25-year history in “healing severely deformed and crippled children” and has provided free medical services in many countries from 2000 to 2003.

“This is a team of doctors and nurses and qualified persons who are going to come to TT on June 19 - 27. They will spend one full week in TT and provide surgeries on 75 of our underprivileged children who have been on a waiting list for surgery for some time now. “This team will work closely with the medical chief of staff at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC). The Operation Rainbow team will be headed by qualified personnel and will be registered by the Medical Board in Trinidad. The team will also ensure that some of their techniques will be transferred over to our local doctors to ensure that our local doctors will be able to benefit from this visit,” Rahael said. The Minister identified spinal curvature, clubbed feet and complex multiple-knee-leg deformities as some of the conditions affecting the 75 children. All procedures will be done free of charge at the EWMSC and it will cost Government $250,000 to bring the Operation Rainbow team here.

Rahael also announced that free CT scans will be available at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) and EWMSC for persons under the age of 18 and over to the age of 60, once they have been perscribed by a doctor. Noting that 47 cataract surgeries were performed recently at PoSGH, Rahael said the operations will continue “until we reduce the entire waiting lists for cataract surgery.” In March, Government launched a $10 million initiative with the Opthalmological Society of TT to undertake 3,000 cataract surgeries this year and establish a state-of-the art eye surgical theatre at the EWMSC.