By Sharmain CornetteBy afternoon yesterday, three young children had already undergone successful open heart operations and another was being prepared for surgery last night, all marking a historic achievement for the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI) and by extension the local public health sector.In fact, CHI’s Chief Executive Officer and Cardiac Surgeon, Dr Gary Stephens, regarded the whole undertaking as significant, when he, along with the overseas-based medical team here to conduct the operations met to brief media operatives about the momentous mission.The team undertaking the paediatric operation. At extreme right is Dr Gary Stephens. Also in the back row are Mr George Subraj (with hat) and Mr Lake Persaud. A total of eight operations are expected to be conducted by the end of this week with an average of two surgeries per day, all of which are being done free of cost.With three operations completed,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, Dr Stephens, is confident that the surgeries are on schedule. The first case was a pulmonary stenosis, where there was a severe obstruction to the heart’s attempt to pump blood to the lungs. And then a Tetralogy procedure, a very complex operation,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, was undertaken where there was a combination of a hole in the heart with obstructed blood flow. The third procedure undertaken was to address an atrial sepal defect,Cheap NFL Jerseys Store, which was characterised by a large hole between the left and right chambers of the heart.The patients were 11-year-old Nirvanie Browne, one-year-old Keandra Daniels and 11-year-old Shadel Griffith. Nine-year-old Bharrat Narine as at yesterday afternoon was the next in line to join the list of completed surgeries. According to Dr Stephens,Nike Air Max 1 Womens Sale, performing paediatric heart operations at the local facility, which is situated in the Georgetown Hospital Compound,Cheap NFL Jerseys, was a long time in the making but was nonetheless an inevitable move for CHI to incorporate.“From the inception of CHI, it has always been one of our dreams to bring paediatric surgery on board. Over the years we have done a few paediatric programmes but mostly those were closing kids through the groin without surgery…we never had that capability,” Dr Stephens asserted.However, it was just about a year ago, he related that plans for the undertaking were immensely nurtured following a conversation with Dr Sheel Vatsia, a surgeon from the Long Island Jewish Medical Centre in New York. Dr Vatsia is one of the two surgeons on the team of 14 professionals undertaking the operations. According to him, it is a privilege to render assistance to children in need in recognition of the fact that there is no other facility like CHI available in Guyana.Also included on the team are Jeanine Lutgen, surgeon; Maureen Gilroy, OR Technician; Ingrid Hollinger and Tatyana Rozenthal both Anaesthesiologists; Tracey Baker and Robert Stroud both Perfusionists; Shubhika Srivasatva, Shushmita Mikkilineni and Joanne Mora all cardiologists; Colsie Myrie, Marietta Sabido, Margie Lutian and Marlene Juanico all Critical Care Nurses.And there was also support from local health professionals in the persons of Dr Alexandra Harvey in the area of anesthesia, and also nurses Lionette Cato and Marcia Kellman.The overseas team, according to Dr Stephens, has been around the world including Vietnam and China engaging similar feats. They are drawn from top health facilities in the United States including Mount Sinai Medical Centre, Montefiore Medical Centre, Maimonides Medical Centre, all in New York, the Texas Children’s Hospital and the Miami Children’s Hospital.It was just three months ago that one of the Cardiologists had travelled to Guyana to screen the potential clients. However, a list of patients was also provided by Mr George Subraj who is one of the major financial supporters of the auspicious venture.“We kind of combined the list of what we had with what he had and we screened them and we selected…We were planning to do this in January but we had some difficulties mostly with regards to getting everybody on ground,” Dr Stephens related. With all difficulties aside, measures were put in place to fulfil a plan to have the operations be cost-free to the selected clients. And according to Dr Stephens, the forthcoming support was nothing short of a good example of Government/private sector co-operation. “In this project was the quickest that I have ever seen the government worked. I got a response from them in two hours from the time I made a request…I am very thankful to the Health Ministry especially Dr Bheri Ramsaran” Dr Stephens noted. However, there was no little support from Guyanese