With the help of a number of local businesses, the Rotary Club of Demerara yesterday erected a billboard in the compound of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) to reflect its ‘Gift of Life’ programme.
The programme allows for children under the age of 18 with defective hearts to go to overseas for corrective heart surgery free of cost and has so far sent five children for surgery. The New Market and East Street entrance of the GPH was chosen as the billboard site as it is a prominent spot to highlight the programme.
According to Patrick De Groot, vice president of the club, to be eligible for the programme the doctor of the affected child must provide a letter stating the problem along with an electrocardiogram (ECG) of the heart. These are then sent to Gift of Life International in the US where the case is reviewed by a team of doctors who decide whether the child can be operated on. If possible, an affiliated hospital, located in the USA or Jamaica, is identified and a date is set for surgery. The club is then notified and makes visa arrangements for the parent and the child. If the affiliated hospital is in Jamaica, De Groot said, no visa is required.
Chief Executive Officer of GPH Michael Khan expressed hope that the Rotary Club of Demerara will continue to work with the hospital.
According to Khan, the hospital has a paediatric committee that oversees the cases of all children who are admitted to the hospital with heart anomalies. Several of these children are selected and sent to South America for surgery.
Though Khan admitted that he had not heard about the programme until he was approached to have the billboard erected, he commended its initiatives, stating that it increased the number of children in Guyana who will be able to receive heart surgery.
Aside from the billboard, eight wheelchairs for the maternity ward were donated to the GPH, a collaboration of the Rotary Clubs of Demerara and Georgetown Central along with the international organization Free Wheelchair Mission.
Funds were gained through donations from companies such as Digicel, Ansa McAl and Sterling Products Ltd.
Gift of Life International offers programmes not only in Guyana but also in Uganda, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Philippines and helps more than 1,000 children a year.
