Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Heart Institute of Guyana Dr Gary Stephens yesterday publicly endorsed the APNU+AFC Coalition and urged all Guyanese to vote for the coalition tomorrow.
Dr Stephens, in an APNU+AFC advertisement in the Stabroek News yesterday, gave his full support to the coalition whilst reminding citizens of 23 years ago when they “invested our hopes and dreams in a new government, unfortunately our dreams have been derailed by a lack of vision, unrestrained corruption and arrogance born of too many years in power.”
Stephens, who founded the institute eight years ago in a public-private partnership, stated that a new generation of Guyanese is growing up with poor healthcare, failing infrastructure and a lack of opportunities. “I firmly believe the coalition offers you an opportunity to restore accountability to government. There have been many attempts to instill fear but I say give hope a chance,” he said in the advertisement, imploring the electorate to vote their hopes and not their fears.
The Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI) opened its doors on October 14, 2006. Children and adults were given the chance to have open-heart surgeries and other heart operations at affordable prices.
Recently, however, Stephens had voiced concern that the life of the institute may be at risk if a new Cath Lab was not completed in the very near future since the existing laboratory was nearing the end of its life.
Staff at the institute, however, have remained tight-lipped about the life of the institute, even denying that trouble was looming.
