— Dr Hercules- Couchman on course to fulfil her dreams as a doctor

By Naomi Marshall

“I LIKE fixing bones, I like the challenge,” Dr. Shonette Hercules-Couchman said as she sat down with the Guyana Chronicle.
Dr. Couchman, an aspiring orthopaedic surgeon, who is originally from Ibini in the Berbice River in Region 10, is now on a journey to fulfil her dreams.
Today, she leaves for China along with 13 other Guyanese to secure her master’s degree in orthopaedic surgery at the Nanjing Medical University.
But for the 29-year-old, it was tough growing up in a single-parent home headed by an unemployed mother. In an attempt to provide a better life for her four children, Dr. Hercules-Couchman’s mother relocated with her children to Kwakwani in 1995.
“It was a real struggle, because employment for a woman was difficult and my mother went through it all, but eventually she got a job. Seeing my mom going through what she went through I told myself I don’t wanna become like that, I don’t want to end up in the same situation. Seeing my mom in that condition made me want to become successful,” Dr. Hercules-Couchman recalled.
In Kwakwani, the young and vibrant Couchman attended the Kwakwani Secondary School where her mother worked as a janitor. On many days, she remained after school to assist her mom.

“My success came from my struggle,” she emphasised.
At age 14, Dr. Hercules-Couchman’s uncle died and no one knew the cause. It was that moment she knew what she wanted to become.
The self-driven young lady in 2005 topped the Kwakwani Secondary School with 10 subjects. At the time, scholarships were being offered to study in Cuba and though it was a great opportunity, she needed her science subjects and as such, decided to go back to school.
It was not long after that her family relocated to Linden, allowing her the opportunity to attend the Mackenzie High School. The following year before the results came out, the confident Couchman applied for the scholarship. Dr. Couchman noted that she was one of the first in her family to attend university, so she knew that when she was accepted into the scholarship programme, that “it was God working.”

Dr. Hercules-Couchman came from a Christian background, so she has always put God first. “Without God you can’t do anything, so if God isn’t between it, you will never become who you truly want to become,” remarked Dr. Hercules-Couchman.
Whenever the struggle and stress came, she would remember that “God will never give you more than you can handle. Those words took me through it all.”
Living in Cuba was tough, but instead of focusing on the negatives, she focused on the positives. “I look at the end of the seven years I will come out successful, I will come out with a degree and I am going to become a doctor.”

In 2013, Couchman returned to Guyana from Cuba as a doctor, specialised in human medicine. By September 2013, she commenced her 18-month rotation at the New Amsterdam Hospital, and then moved to Linden. After eight months, she was transferred to the Bartica Regional Hospital in Region Seven. It was while working in Bartica that she acquired another scholarship, this time to study in China.
There she will specialise in orthopaedic surgery to become the first female orthopaedic surgeon in Guyana with a master’s degree.
“Becoming a doctor is not staying at one place, it’s a continual process,” stated Dr. Hercules-Couchman.

“I love doing surgery, my love for surgery came about in the fourth year of medical school; from since I pick up the knife blade I felt comfortable, when I’m in the theatre, I feel at home” said Dr. Hercules-Couchman. Those feelings were what drove her to become an orthopaedic surgeon.

“Working in Guyana has been a real pleasure for me, helping out and giving my service to the public has been something that I always wanted to do, it brings me joy, I sleep comfortably at nights, knowing that I have helped somebody during the day,” she noted.

“I want to become one of the greatest surgeons, where people can come from all over the world and get their surgeries done right here in Guyana. I am going and specialise to not only develop myself, but also develop this country,” Dr. Hercules-Couchman added.
The young doctor stated that she is a very patriotic person who is very much in love with her country and that she would do anything to make Guyana great.
Dr. Hercules-Couchman’s advice to young aspiring doctors is to keep pressing towards their goals, positing that it is never a smooth road but with determination comes success.
“Medicine is not something easy, but you have to be determined, you have to study hard and once you study it’s going to be okay,” she said, while emphasising that giving up is never an option.