US-based Guyanese Dr Keith Danrick Cummings, a distinguished advocate in medicine and philanthropy, recently received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his volunteer service from US President Joseph Biden.
In a heartfelt message shared during a ceremony, a video of which was seen by this publication, Dr Cummings expressed his deep gratitude, saying he was “overjoyed” and honoured to look back at his remarkable journey from Guyana to the United States. He credited his parents and extended family for supporting him through a path that was challenging but immensely rewarding.
Hailing from the village of Brighton, Corentyne, Berbice, he began his career training as a pharmacist and later earning his medical degree from the University of Guyana. His pursuit of excellence led him to further training in family medicine at Brooklyn Hospital Center and a fellowship in hospital medicine at the University of Alabama.
Today, Dr Cummings holds multiple academic roles, including Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Adjunct Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Guyana, and Associate Professor of Family Medicine at St George’s University in Grenada. Yet, despite his many professional achievements, he remains deeply committed to giving back.
His philanthropy spans the United States and the Caribbean, with donations supporting educational institutions such as the University of Guyana, Eversham Primary School, and Central Corentyne Secondary School. His contributions to healthcare in Guyana are equally extensive, providing critical support to institutions like Linden Hospital and Anamaya Hospital in Berbice through partnerships with organisations such as the Linden Fund and the Stabroek Lions Club.
Reflecting on the harrowing days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Cummings in a February 2022 interview with this newspaper, shared how he sacrificed time with his young family in New York to serve patients during the height of the crisis in 2020. “I saw hundreds of patients in their homes and through telemedicine,” he recalled at that time.
In that interview he had described the initial fight with the virus as “building a ship and sailing at the same time” as numerous forms of therapies were tried and when some started to fail he said it really impacted him.
“Once I began to lose people that I became attached to, it became personal. [It felt] like I was losing…,” he had said candidly. He shared how he resuscitated a 76-year-old woman one morning and she was very thankful but he got a big shock as …“the next day she died so I actually kind of broke down with that, I actually cried…,” he said.
He had also cried over the death of a staff member at the hospital who hailed from Grenada and worked in the canteen. At that point it became even more difficult as they were scared to touch patients for long periods; they were still learning and treatments were failing. At the onset of the pandemic, Dr Cummings had said he witnessed about 12 to 15 patients dying in one day.
“Never in my history have I seen patients die just one after the other but that is what we were seeing because New York was the epicentre,” he had said, before he added that at that time he felt emboldened to work more and do more. There were times when he worked 14 days straight.
Sharing his journey to becoming a doctor, Dr Cummings had said it was his dream since he was in primary school. He said he enjoyed science projects in school and that stimulated his interest but initially it was not easy to get into medical school so he studied pharmacy.
After graduating he worked in St Kitts and Nevis as a pharmacist then later returned to Guyana to study medicine. Following this, he moved to Grenada, where he taught at the St George’s University School of Medicine and later wrote the US medical licensing examination and migrated to the US.
Dr Cummings’ contributions have not gone unnoticed; he has been recognized with numerous accolades. In 2019, he received the US Congressional Recognition for Excellence in Patient Care. He was also honoured with several awards in 2023, including the Coyote Award of Distinction at the Guyana 57th Independence Anniversary Celebration in New York, the New York State Assembly Citation, and a New York City Council Medical Service Award.
