‘Local doctors need more training’ British team offers kidney transplant services to kids in T&T

-Aabida Allaham

WITHOUT skilled medical missionaries on call, local doctors might run amok.

This was stated by Dr Lesley Ann Roberts, medical director of the National Organ Transplant Unit, at a news conference to announce Republic Bank’s collaboration with Transplant Links Community (TLC) and the transplant unit to offer kidney transplant services to young children.

’I am saying that there is need for skilled professionals to have their hands held a little while longer because this is a learning process and children need a little extra care,’ she said.

Transplant Links, a UK-registered charity that saves the lives of children and adults who suffer from fatal kidney disease in the developing world, was established in 2006 by a group of British doctors with many years of transplant experience.

In fact, Roberts hailed TLC’s volunteering team because for one week, they were able to offer their expertise in performing these two-part surgeries on two paediatric patients with a local medical team, so that a sustainable transplant programme can be effectively managed in the long term.

Consultant transplant surgeon and medical director of TLC Andrew Ready added while he has met several skilled physicians here in Trinidad and Tobago, his team was only here to enhance these skills since this country has been unable to successfully perform and set up kidney transplant surgeries for children.

’We basically want to look at children on the island who are suffering from renal failure…because renal failure devastates a child’s life, and a transplant literally takes children away from that,’ he said.

In addition to that, Ready said he felt like it was his mandate to spread the good news about changes in the medical field as it pertained to transplants.

’Our job is to bring that revolution here to the doctors in Trinidad, so they can do those surgeries successfully,’ he said.

The surgeries, which were made possible through Republic Bank’s generous contribution of $273,608.97, involve the use of a ’keyhole’ removal surgery on the donor and a complete transplant on the recipient.

’While we agree that the provision of health care is the State’s responsibility, we are also painfully aware of the great need that exists for certain types of treatment which are not at this time available here in Trinidad and Tobago…and we believe that ours is a moral and social obligation to help,’ added Anna Maria Garcia-Brooks, general manager for the group, marketing and communications, at Republic Bank. (Trinidad Express)