Trinidadian medical team performs eye surgeries at GPHC

Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 October 2015, 21:47 by GxMedia

Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton at GPHC’s Eye Theatre, observing as Dr. Ronnie Bhola conducts a surgery

Ten patients recently benefitted from follow- up eye surgeries, as a four-man team, two ophthalmologists, one nurse and one assistant, all from “World Class Eye Surgeons” based in Port of Spain, Trinidad, conducted the operations at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The hospital said in a statement that d
uring the visit, Dr. Ronnie Bhola, a Trinidadian Vitreo-Retinal Specialist and Head of World Class Eye Surgeons was able to perform surgeries on patients who had earlier undergone retinal surgeries in Trinidad, but needed follow-up surgery.

Dr. Adesh Maharaj, an Orbit and Oculoplasty Specialist, conducted operations on four children with strabismus (squint eye). The aim of strabismus surgery is to correct the misalignment of the eyes. The four children were operated under general anaesthesia at the GPHC.

After the surgeries on Saturday morning, the children were excited about getting their eyes correctly aligned. Dr. Lamy Badette, ophthalmologist, working in the Department of Ophthalmology at GPHC, also worked along with Dr. Mahabir on these paediatric cases.

Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton paid a visit to the hospital on Friday during the surgical procedures.

He was appreciative of the team’s visit, as this saved the Guyanese patients the effort of having to travel to Trinidad to have the surgeries done.

On October 23, the ophthalmologists were also involved in a Continued Medical Education (CME) Session, organised by Alcon Trinidad/Ansa McAl Group and GPHC. They delivered lectures on various eye conditions and were able to enhance the knowledge base of local ophthalmologists, optometrists, general physicians and students.

The World Eye Class surgeons pointed out that they were extremely happy with this mission and they hope to continue doing such charitable missions to Guyana in the future.

The patients were extremely grateful for the timely visit to Guyana. The GPHC, Department of Ophthalmology, was extremely pleased to have been able to host the visiting team and to learn from the specialists.

Vitreo-Retinal Surgery was not available in Guyana for a number of years, and as such Dr. Bhola has been operating in Trinidad on numerous Guyanese patients with retinal diseases of the eye, primarily diabetic patients.