–unveils Gift of Life billboard in compound of Emergency & Ambulatory Care depts.

THE Rotary Club of Demerara has donated eight wheelchairs to the Maternity Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital, and has unveiled its Gift of Life Billboard in the compound of the Emergency and Ambulatory Care departments (East & Quamina streets) of that institution.

This great humanitarian gesture of this august institution was performed last Friday, February 21.

The billboard is intended for prominent advertisement of the Rotary Club’s desire and ability to help children with defective hearts, Rotary officials have said.

Assisting in unveiling the billboard was little Terriann Wright, who has had her surgery done last year January through Gift of Life programme, and her mother, Ms. Gillian Henry.

Sponsors of the billboard project included DIGICEL; Bounty Farm; ANSA Mc AL; Pegasus; REDD Entertainment, and Sterling Products.

Treasurer of the Rotary Club of Demerara, Mr. Lance Hinds, presented the first of eight wheelchairs to the Director of Nursing Services at the GPHC, Matron Audrey Corrie; and in brief remarks to the gathering, Mr. Ossie James, President of the Rotary Club of Demerara, outlined that the wheelchairs were made available through a collaboration with the Rotary Club of Georgetown Central, a sister club; the E 1-World Rotary Club; and the Free Wheelchair Mission.

Those present at the handing over ceremony included Chief Executive Officer of the GPHC, Mr. Michael Khan, and other representatives of the GPHC; Rotarians from the Rotary clubs of Demerara and Stabroek; and representatives of some of the sponsors of the project.

Mr Patrick De Groot, Past President and Current Vice President of the Rotary Club of Demerara, gave an insight into the Gift of Life programme and how the community could benefit from it.
Gift of Life was birthed, he said, with the aim of identifying and helping at one child at a time with a heart problem. Throughout the world, Rotary clubs and Rotary districts would be relied upon to identify children in need of heart surgery. Thereafter, the Rotary would work to have those children treated at one of their affiliated hospitals in the United States of America.

“This method of helping children remains an important purpose of the Gift of Life programme, in that volunteers are able to see the impact they have on that one life, and it motivates and inspires others to continue to support the programme,” Mr. De Groot said.

He noted that, over the years, Gift of Life programmes have evolved with the assistance of the recently formed “Gift of Life International (GLI)”, and adding that this body is now a well coordinated global network, a circumstance which has magnified its capacity to help children in need of heart surgeries.

The Rotary Club of Demerara has, for several years, been involved with the Gift of Life programme.
De Groot said that while children will still go up to the United States and around the world for surgery, GLI has focused on strategically citing centres of excellence to treat children in their home countries or regions of birth, so that children are no longer compelled to travel only to the US for surgery.

Through the expanded efforts of the Gift of Life programme into the development of sustainable paediatric cardiac surgery and after-care programmes, GLI is now helping over 1,000 children to access treatment for heart conditions each year, De Groot said.

As time progressed, programmes focused on sustaining reliable paediatric cardiac in Uganda, El Salvador, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Philippines have been developed and operational for years, Mr. De Groot said. In January 2011, the Gift of Life International announced the “Our Hearts are in Jamaica” programme, and set up a Gift of Life programme at the Bustamanti Hospital for Children. Surgeries are now conducted there by a local Jamaican team which has been trained by Gift of Life doctors.

How to access the Programme
There are a few simple steps to be followed once a child is identified with heart ailments and requires help from Rotary International. Firstly, the sick child’s local doctor has to contact the Rotary Club of Demerara by calling the number. The doctor has to provide the Rotary Club with a letter stating the problem, along with an ECG report on the child’s heart. These documents would then be forwarded to the Gift of Life International in the United States, where the information would be reviewed by a team of doctors who would decide if the patient can be operated on. Once this is possible, an affiliated hospital is identified and a date is set for the surgery.

The Club is then informed, and would organize for a parent and the child to obtain visas to travel to the United States of America. Alternatively, if the affiliated hospital is in Jamaica, no visa would be required.
Next, Rotary Club of Demerara is required to get a local company to sponsor the air fares for the parent and child to travel to the USA or Jamaica, as the case may be. In the case of Terriann Wright, airfares for herself and mother to travel to Jamaica were sponsored by DIGICEL.

Arrangements are usually made for the child and parent to be met at the airport by Rotarians in the country where the surgery is to be performed. The Rotarians look after all arrangements, and provide home care until the parent and child are ready to return home.

The cost of the surgery and all arrangements in the USA or Jamaica are borne by Rotarians in those countries. “It’s all sponsored by Rotarians from the country (of operation),” De Groot said.
And extending a passionate call for persons with heart ailments to get on board, Mr. De Groot said: “If you know of any child under 18 years of age with a sick heart, just contact us and let us start the process of helping them to live a normal, healthy life.”

He said that based on the 2013 survey of existing Gift of Life programmes, more than 16,000 children have been treated through Gift of Life programmes over the past four decades, proving that the Rotary organisation has really done a lot of good work and saved lives.

GPHC CEO, Mr. Michael Khan, said it was indeed welcoming to know about the Gift of Life programme. He added that it was just recently that the GPHC, through the Ministry of Health, sent eleven children well below the age of 18 to Central America to attend to heart conditions. Of the lot, one child’s condition was so critical that she succumbed. Khan told of arrangements being made to send out another batch of children to have their heart conditions attended to, but he said that the GPHC would be willing to use the Gift of Life programme to increase its capacity to have children with heart conditions access treatment.

February 23 is the birth date of the Rotary International. On this occasion, the Club is celebrating 109 years of existence. This date also coincides with Guyana’s 44th anniversary of gaining republican status.

Meanwhile, the Rotary Club of Demerara recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and is one of 34,000 Rotary Clubs International around the world.

(By Shirley Thomas)