Top US surgeons arrive in TT

TOP SURGEONS from the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington DC will be part of a 27-member Operation Rainbow team which will be performing orthopaedic and scoliosis surgical procedures at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) this week. Health Minister John Rahael said the team arrived in Trinidad and Tobago last night and would be screening over 100 persons (mostly children and young adults) at the EWMSC today. Rahael told Sunday Newsday that four theatres at the EWMSC would be made available for the surgeries and he was optimistic that most of the “very difficult” cases would be done this week. 

He said local doctors would be intimately involved in this week’s surgeries which were part of ongoing efforts to reduce surgical backlogs at the nation’s hospitals. Local coordinator for Operation Rainbow, Brian Lushington said, surgeons from the Walter Reed Hospital would be included in this team and they were highly specialised in the treatment of scoliosis. Lushington said there was currently one local scoliosis specialist in TT and the team hoped to address some of the more complex cases that he had. Lushington also indicated that the team would be bringing in a lot of equipment, particularly for the scoliosis operations, since much of it was not present locally. Operation Rainbow teams first came to TT in mid-2004 and Rahael indicated that additional teams would be coming to TT during the course of 2005.