Guyana is now offering paediatric open-heart surgeries, eliminating the need for patients and parents to travel overseas, according to officials of the privately-owned Balwant Singh Hospital.
In making the announcement on Tuesday, the health institution’s Director, Madhu Singh said the cost would be GUY$1 million per surgery, the same amount that the Guyana government provides for patients to travel to India.
“Children in Guyana normally have to travel as far as India and government provides one million dollars for those surgeries. So, that is the amount we will charge and they have the same service with their parents and family by their sides,” she told reporters.
The surgeries are being performed by a team headed by Dr. Ratan Das who is a Senior Consultant and Clinical Director of Cardiac Surgery at the Medica Superspecialty Hospital in Kolkata, India. The Hospital’s Director assured that the institution is adequately equipped with modern technologically advanced equipment for open heart surgeries. Two sisters, Tiana and Gayona Bissondyal, who were each born with a hole in their hearts, recently underwent surgery- the first such paediatric heart surgery there.
Their mother, Moushimi Bissoondyal, was elated at the successful surgeries performed on her daughters after spending several months to explore all options for them to go overseas. “I run around trying to see how they would get the surgery and over one year I went on public waiting list and I tell myself they would never do the surgery,” she said the mother. The Balwant Singh Hospital offers a variety of tests and other heart procedures.
The privately-run Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI), which is located in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), also offers heart surgery for adults as well as several other interventional procedures.
