Known as the Overseas Medical Assistance Team (OMAT), the group is led by Dr Stephen Carryl, who was born and bred in Linden and is currently Chairman of Surgery at the Wyckoff Heights Hospital Center in Brooklyn, NY, and President of OMAT.
According to Linda Felix-Johnson, Secretary of the New York Chapter of the Linden Fund USA (LFU), the mission is a continuation of an annual exercise. She said this year the mission is a collaborative endeavour with the Linden Fund USA (LFU) and the Women of Mission International (WOMI).
“In 2007, the LFU teamed with a 30-member North East Mission of Hope medical team to sponsor our first medical outreach for the people of the Linden community and Region 10.
Starting in 2010, the LFU has teamed up every year with OMAT and WOMI to provide medical services to the Linden community,” Felix-Johnson said during a telephone conversation from New York on Sunday.
She is expected to be in Guyana today to finalise arrangements on the ground before the medical team arrives. Pointing out that the medical mission’s services are administered free of cost to hundreds of patients each year, Felix-Johnson said: “Throughout these years, our dedicated team has worked around the clock during the visits to provide hundreds of critical surgeries and procedures to the people of Linden.”
According to her, the 2013 team is very excited to resume these much needed services, after a break in 2012, due to unrest in the Linden area. “We hope that residents of Linden and Region 10 would seize the opportunity to receive free and expert medical treatment, complementing the existing services offered at the local hospital and health centres.”
During its visit, the mission will also facilitate a series of educational forums for medical professional and community members; and a National Woman’s conference in collaboration with WOMI, a women’s empowerment organisation.
The visiting team includes medical doctors and surgeons from the USA, who will be supported by overseas nurses, social workers and support staff, as well as nurses and other medical personnel attached to the Linden Hospital Complex. Medical professionals are encouraged to join the fund’s registry to volunteer and provide services to the people of Region 10 on a regular basis.
During the team’s visit, there will be daily medical treatment and surgeries at the Mackenzie Hospital Complex. On July 30, there will be a woman’s conference themed, ‘Take Action – Make It Happen’ at the Egbert Benjamin Centre, Republic Ave, Linden. July 31 is the day set aside for a health fair and lecture at the LEN building on conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, HIV/AIDS and prostate, breast and cervical cancers.
Lectures for nurses at the Linden Hospital Complex are also planned as well as a paediatric community outreach on August 2 at the Wisroc Paediatric Centre. A community outreach and day trip to Muritaro (up the Demerara River) is set for August 3.
