Ten Guyanese between the ages four and 24 years old have returned home after successfully completing open heart surgeries in Chennai, India, courtesy of Kids First Fund.

Jadon Garnett, Michelle McKenzie, Larisa Mohini, Nellisa Cozier, Aditya Ramadhan, Angelica Seenanon, Narsita Peters, Stephanie Banfus, Christina Latchman and Aaliyah Lowe left for India on September 30 and returned on October 27 last. Their surgeries were done at the Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Chennai.

Former First Lady Varshnie Singh, who founded Kids First Fund, said at a press conference yesterday however, that although the trip was successful for the heart patients the organization has an outstanding bill of US$50,000 for the hospital where the surgeries were done. She said the cost of surgeries was some US$65,596 but the hospital granted Kids First Fund a US$10,000 reduction.

The balance must be paid before any more surgeries can be done at the institution.

The former first lady had requested financial assistance from the Ministry of Health in August.

However, at a press conference prior to departing for India in September, she had reported that this assistance, which she never had trouble accessing before, had not been forthcoming. Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy had later told this newspaper that the application for financial assistance for the ten heart patients was being processed. He told this newspaper yesterday that these funds were now available and that he had already personally relayed this to the former first lady. Meanwhile, Kids First Fund has 276 children on a waiting list for urgent heart surgery.

Another ten patients are scheduled to leave Guyana in March next year for heart surgeries in India.

According to Singh, US$96,000 are needed for this trip and she appealed to the general public for assistance in raising the money.