After successfully performing the first of two kidney transplant surgeries scheduled for this month, at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) last Saturday, the team of kidney specialists from the United States were yesterday back in theatre to perform their second one.

And the word is that yesterday’s surgery, performed on 55-year-old Mohamed Shariff, a rice and cattle farmer of Number Four Village, West Coast Berbice, was successful, and late in the evening the patient was still under anesthesia, after spending more than eight hours in the theatre.

His relatives waited outside the theatre for several hours after the surgery had been completed. When, around 18:30 hours, he was finally wheeled out of the theatre and transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, where he will spend about the next week, they were overjoyed, and quickly huddled around to get a glimpse of him.

“I’ve seen him for myself, and am satisfied that his surgery was successful,” his daughter Bibi told the Guyana Chronicle last night. She said that earlier in the evening the doctors had come out of theatre and informed them that their father’s surgery was completed and had been successful. “But we were still eager to see him, she said

Meanwhile, his donor – a female relative was last night resting comfortably in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the institution where she will remain for the next three days.

And Jairaj Singh, 55, of Grove/Diamond New Scheme whose kidney transplant surgery was performed on Saturday, is also resting comfortably at the Intensive Care Unit of the GPH. His son Brijraj Singh, 23 who donated one of his kidneys for the surgery, is also doing well and is looking forward to being discharged within a few days.

Both patients – Jairaj Singh and Shariff Mohamed who had experienced kidney failure and had to eventually give up working, had been on dialysis for the last 18 months – a delicate, highly technical and very expensive procedure.