High-tech surgery at Mt Hope hospital

“I feel better. I was not afraid. They just told me I would feel like I am sleeping and I’d wake up normal,” said 14-year-old Shelly Baldeo, the first of four patients who received surgery to correct curvature of the spine (scoliosis) last week at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope. The surgeries took between five and six hours. Baldeo was in no pain Friday during a visit by the Health Minister John Rahael, who earlier told the media that approximately 100 patients were screened last weekend. He announced that a total of 38 surgeries and 52 procedures were done by doctors brought to TT by Missions International/ Operation Rainbow.

Procedures were also done to correct bone deformities and knee joint complications. Rahael said the estimated cost of all the surgeries would be $1.2 million if they were done at a private hospital. Dr Jack Dastous, paediatric orthopaedic surgeon at Shriners Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah, told Sunday Newsday two places on Baldeo’s spine were curved. On Monday, posterior spinal fusion, in which rods were inserted from the second thoracic vertebrae to the third lumbar vertebrae, was completed. He said, “14 or 15 levels were fused.”  Dastous said the latest technology was used in the surgery. Scoliosis is not a painful condition, but it can cause a bump on the back and uneven shoulders. If not corrected, it can lead to heart and lung problems.

He said because the curves on Baldeo’s spine were at more than an 80 degree angle, the spine could begin compressing the heart and her lifespan could be shortened by 15 to 20 years. Dr Dastous described Baldeo’s recuperation as “amazing,” saying that children in the US were not as brave. Since her surgery, Baldeo has been using an incentive spirometer, a device to help exercise the lungs and prevent them from collapsing. Her recovery is expected to take between six and eight weeks. However, Baldeo will have to refrain from taking part in the sporting activities she enjoys—gymnastics and running — because a bone graft has to be done. “We have to put bone along the entire length of the spine that is fused, because it is a race between the spine fusing and the rods and hooks breaking, so we have to make sure they are careful in the first year.” 

}Eleven-year-old Sherrifa Doodooman’s father Paul was happy that she received surgery to correct fractures in her left leg. He said from three years old she began breaking her leg regularly. “I spent a lot of money doing tests. As soon as her leg got good, it would break again. She missed a lot of school,” he said. Sherrifa attends the St Julian Presbyterian School. A rod was inserted in Doodooman’s leg and her recovery will take approximately seven weeks. Fourteen-year-old Tiffiny Demills, a student of Diego Martin Junior Secondary School, had surgery on Wednesday to straighten her legs. Her mother Gail thanked God it was the “fourth and final.”