-prostate problems picked up
Linden residents recently benefited from a medical outreach exercise hosted by the Overseas Medical Assistance Team (OMAT) of the USA which resulted in a number of surgeries being performed and children being furnished with eyeglasses.
According to OMAT Chairman Dr Stephen Carryl, a Lindener by birth, the 18-year-old organization has conducted a number of outreaches to Guyana. However, he said that in the past, service to the Linden community had been hampered by the lack of sufficient and modernized medical facilities.
The recent exercise was a collaboration among OMAT, the Linden Fund USA (LFU) and the Multilateral Association Student Society (MASS). LFU facilitated the non-medical aspects of the trip while MASS sponsored the provision of eye glasses for 65 students of the Wismar Christianburg Secondary School. The one-week stint saw the team performing 20 surgeries including for thyroid conditions and hysterectomies in addition to screening the students.
According to Dr Carryl there is a need for more attention to be given to prostate problems among men in Linden. “What we found and I was not aware of was the prostate problem which exists among a large number of men in Linden and we didn’t have a team to address this problem…. So one of the things I would commit to is getting an urologist to be on the next visit. We had a large number of men waiting on me and we couldn’t address their need surgically,” he said.
Additionally, Carryl and his wife donated $1M to the Linden chapter of the Cancer Society which they had committed to during an earlier outreach exercise. The Society’s nurse Yvonne Williams collected the cheque. While an assessment was not done to determine the prevalence of cervical cancer among the community’s women the donation was to be used as a proactive move in the fight against the disease.
In accepting the cheque Williams said there was not a high prevalence of cancers in Linden but the Society is challenged by the women who do not return to uplift their test results. She also highlighted some of the challenges faced by women who receive positive diagnoses and asked that some of the funds be directed towards their treatment and care.