The Overseas Medical Mission Team (OMAT) has for more than two decades provided invaluable medical service annually to hundreds of Linden and Region Ten residents – this year is no exception.
According to the team’s coordinator, Linda Felix-Johnson, about three hundred people from all age groups and walks of life turned up at the Linden Medical Complex on Monday 20 July to register for the free medical services, obtainable this year from 20 to 26 July.
The visiting team is headed by OMAT’s founder and President, Dr. Stephen Carryl, Chairman of Surgery at the Wyckoff Heights Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York. The team includes gynecology specialist, Dr. Faunda Campbell, who migrated from Linden to the US at the age of twelve years with her parents. She will be providing services mainly to women with hysterectomies and other female-related issues. Another member of the team, Dr. Ian Alleyne-McQuay, a spine and brain surgeon, is visiting Linden for the first time. His father, Gordon Alleyne, is a born and bred Lindener, who graduated from the Demba Trade School and worked with the bauxite company for some time after serving his apprenticeship before emigrating to the US. Other members of the team are general practitioner Michael Kirlew, MD; Leigha Carryl, college sophomore, Pre-Med major; Samella Carryl, high school student; JoAnne Carryl, wife of the team leader and Co-founder of OMAT, who is also coordinator of the mission; Boneita Primo; Linda Felix, Ms, Psychology.
The one-week exercise will also facilitate an educational lecture for medical professionals at the Linden Hospital Complex and a community outreach. OMAT is collaborating with the Women of Mission International (WOMI) for the second successive year and it includes an all-day Women’s Conference under the theme: “Knowing Your Purpose” tomorrow at the LEN Building, Republic Avenue at which the First Lady of the Nation, Sandra Granger, will be the special guest speaker. The Mission will climax with a community health walk on Sunday 26, July.
Felix-Johnson, Chairman of WOMI, has been associated with OMAT for several years as Secretary of the Linden Fund, USA, when the mission collaborated with that entity. Felix-Johnson, noting that Dr. Stephen Carryl, a son of Linden and a leading basketball player, who represented Guyana at the youth level in the sport before he left the country for the US, added that he received a plaque from the Regional Democratic Council in 2013 for leading the annual mission to his hometown for over twenty-one years.
“Our dedicated team has worked around the clock
during the visits to provide hundreds of critical surgeries and procedures to people of Linden and Region Ten,” Felix-Johnson told Stabroek News on Tuesday. “This year is proving to be no different. The 2015 team is very excited to provide these much needed services and are glad that Linden and Region Ten residents are seizing the opportunity to receive free and expert medical treatment, complementing the existing services offered at the local hospital and health centres.”
