OPPOSITION and People’s National Congress Reform leader Robert Corbin says he is fine and in good health after undergoing surgery in a New York hospital.

“Surgery was successfully completed on Thursday May 7, and I am soon to complete the post operative treatment. Let me state clearly, for the avoidance of any doubt, that, but for (a) bout of influenza, I am in good health. I am also feeling fine and energised,” he said in a statement last Friday.

He reported that the severe chest pains he suffered which led to his hospitalisation in Georgetown on April 25 arose from the malfunctioning of his digestive system, including a dysfunctional gall bladder.

“Surgery was determined necessary for the removal of the gallbladder to be followed by a course of medical treatment related to the stomach”, he said.

He was airlifted to New York for further checks and returned home on May 23.

Mr. Corbin said his physicians initially believed his chest pains were heart related.

“While a heart attack was very early ruled out, they considered it necessary to have urgent investigations done to evaluate the functioning of my heart. It was for this reason I was transferred to the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI), which was under the ultimate control of doctors in the United States. I have been advised that they requested my urgent travel to the USA because, although new facilities have been constructed here for angiography, such procedure could not be carried out without the relevant specialist surgeons on location to treat any abnormality that may be determined during the procedure.”

Corbin said checks in New York “found me to be a person with chest pains, but with a perfect functioning heart. Consequently, they recommended further medical therapy to deal with my symptoms, the determination of which required several tests and evaluation.”

He thanked the Guyana Government and others for their assistance during his illness.

He said some of the comments and criticisms made during his illness were “baseless, distasteful and unethical.”

The Guyana Government covered all the medical expenses for the Opposition Leader, including his medical evacuation to New York, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon said.

“This is a convention, custom and practice that have been made available”, he replied when asked at a post-Cabinet press briefing if the government was paying for Corbin’s medical evaluation and treatment.

“The State has not shirked the convention. Past Presidents and current constitutional post holders have indeed been beneficiaries of that support”, Luncheon said.

Asked if this included the cost of flying Corbin out on a private aircraft to New York with medical personnel, he said the government was paying for “every aspect” of the Opposition Leader’s expenses.

Corbin, 61, a PNCR stalwart, was elected party chairman in 2000 and retained in the role in 2002. He was chosen to lead the party in 2003 following the death of former President Desmond Hoyte.

After the party’s defeat in the 2006 national elections, Corbin’s leadership came under scrutiny, although ultimately his two prospective challengers withdrew before a contest could be organised and his leadership was affirmed.

Challenges to Corbin’s leadership of the party led to infighting which intensified late last year after stalwart Mr. James McAllister was removed as a PNCR parliamentarian. This prompted strong protests from senior members, including Mr. Vincent Alexander, Registrar at the University of Guyana, who had previously attempted to challenge Corbin as leader.

In a statement, the breakaway group called ‘Team Alexander’ said it can no longer be of service to a party that “merely gives lip service to the ideals that inspired our continued service…”

Alexander resigned as the PNCR representative on the Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform and Ms. Julianne Gaul submitted her resignation from the Regional Development Council of Region Four.

Dr. Richard Van West-Charles, former Health Minister and a son-in-law of the late President Forbes Burnham, has returned home to challenge Corbin as leader of the party.

His main aim, he told the Chronicle, is to help bring the party his father-in-law founded in the mid-1950s into the principles and values of the 21st century and the challenge to Corbin for the PNCR top post is a central plank in this plan.

He said he will stage his challenge at the party’s Biennial Congress set for August.