GPHC expanding services following groundbreaking, successful kidney transplant on seven-year-old

Following the groundbreaking success of a kidney transplant performed on seven-year-old patient Angelica Soamnauth at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Guyana is poised to enhance its capability to perform pediatric transplant surgeries.

The medical feat marks a significant milestone, paving the way for expanded medical expertise in the realm of pediatric transplantation in Guyana.

During a media conference at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation Resource Centre on Friday, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony said the medical team’s success has demonstrated the local capacity to carry out more of these surgeries.

“Over the years we have seen our transplant programme grow, we have seen the results of the transplant programme improve drastically and in fact, I think we are one of the transplant centres in the Caribbean, where we have been getting extremely good results. We have moved from doing the adult transplant…Now branching off into pediatric transplant,” Minister Anthony underscored.

He highlighted that the government will be procuring equipment, and investing in local training programmes to overcome the challenges faced by doctors in carrying out diagnostic testing for kidney disease and the turnaround time for results.

To this end, Dr. Anthony noted that the government will be fostering more collaborations with expert institutions to elevate training programmes locally.

“We have a very strong collaboration now through PAHO (Pan American Health Organisation) with the DTI (Donation Transplant Institute), which is based in Barcelona, and over the last several months we have had a lot of people from the transplant institute, the local agency, and the Georgetown Hospital getting exposure in Barcelona to some of the things we need to put in place.

“We don’t have the capability right now in the country to be able to do that. In fact, nobody in the Caribbean is able to do that type of testing…We are working now where we can train people in Guyana to do that, buy the equipment, and make sure we have the capability of doing it because if we want to have a strong programme in transplant, we must be able to do matching,” the health minister underscored.

Vascular and Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Kishore Persaud said this is a historic achievement in Guyana’s medical field.

On October 30last, the team accomplished what many thought was impossible by successfully transplanting an adult kidney from the donor, the patient’s father, into the child, even though the patient was three kilogrammes short of the required 20-kilogrammes weight.