Grenadian doctor is Guyana’s 1st foreign national kidney transplant patient

…young Guyanese doctor also receives kidney

By Lakhram Bhagirat

Grenadian doctor Germaine Bristol will go down in history as the first non-national to undergo a kidney transplant surgery in Guyana.

Dr Bristol and her 19-year-old son Gerron travelled to Guyana early last month to have Head of the Transplant Team at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Dr Kishore Persaud and his team perform the harvesting and transplantation of the organ. They both underwent surgery on June 14 and it was declared a success, but not without complication.
At a press conference on Monday, Dr Bristol expressed her gratitude to Dr Persaud and the Government of Guyana for accepting the request from the Grenadian Government to have the surgery done here. She said that they were actively considering other countries for the surgery including Trinidad and the United States. However, Trinidad was unavailable for her and she needed US$350,000 as a deposit to access care in the US.
“We did research and we found out that the Guyana programme. It has been a successful programme and Dr Kishore came highly recommended and it was another Caribbean country, which made it feel a lot more homey,” she said.
Dr Bristol explained that her colleagues and friends also recommended the GPHC for the surgery since some of them would have trained in Guyana and know the quality of service provided by the transplant team.
“So, to anyone who wants to access medical care. I would stand behind that and see, based on what I have heard from before and what I’ve experienced myself, Georgetown Public Hospital does come highly recommended. So I would recommend it to anyone seeking medical care,” the doctor said.

A new lease on life
Dr Bristol said that she now has a “lease on life” following her transplant. Explaining her diagnosis, the Grenadian said that she fell ill about nine years ago while studying medicine and has been on dialysis ever since.
“I did not let it stop me. I started dialysis in the UK but I did finish medical school, I did return home, I did do internship, and worked as a house officer even though it has been a very long and challenging route,” she said.
The transplant was imperative because Dr Bristol was out of access points for haemodialysis and was on peritoneal dialysis which was basically self-explanatory as the last resort. Her nephrologist back in Grenada explained that it was a bleak situation she was in.
“Dr John Richer who is the one who initially made contact with Dr Kishore, on our behalf I must say thank you to him and to Dr Kishore for accepting the challenge of doing my transplant. I know that he was not expecting what he got and he did get a challenge,” Dr Bristol explained.

However, Dr Bristol was not the only person that received a kidney from Dr Persaud and his team. The transplant team also performed a kidney transplant on another doctor. This time it was 26-year-old Guyanese Dr Nyamekeye Griffith who received a kidney from her cousin Yannis Abrams.
The young doctor had her surgery done on June 28 and it was also a success. She said that her confidence in the team never wavered since she knew many of them during her medical school training.
“I’m here to stand as a testimony to say what an excellent job, to show what an excellent job the transplant team has done with limited resources. I was extremely impressed by the quality of service that I received…I knew them from since I was in medical school, they all taught me, so I was aware of their competence and I had absolutely no questions about whether they would do a good job…It was very relieving to know that I was in excellent hands, and now I can go back to thinking about continuing my career. Because while I was on dialysis, there wasn’t much that I could do in the medical field and now that I have this new life. I feel extremely grateful,” the young doctor said.

“Can never achieve transplantation in Guyana”
Dr Persaud told members of the press that transplants started in Guyana back in 2008 and was done periodically until 2014 when they established a team. He said that the challenges to establish the team were many.
“In 2015 upon my return, we were told that we can never achieve transplantation in Guyana locally. Today, we are here to show that we have not only achieved it locally but we have risen to the standard that we can take one of the most challenging patients from our partner Caricom country, and a young doctor from our own country and transplant them successfully,” Dr Persaud said.
Explaining the surgeries, he said that dialysis affects almost all the body’s organs and when Dr Bristol came to Guyana, she had multi organ disorder to some extent. He added that her condition posed a challenge to the team.
“Dr Bristol gave us one of the first complication that we ever had of delayed graft function meaning that when we transplant the kidney, it took almost three week before the kidneys start working. Most of the time we will see your kidney work right away on the operating table. All in all, we put our brains together, myself, Dr Martin, Dr Samlall and the entire team and we managed to pull her through successfully. Her kidneys almost back to normal function. She will be able to go about and do everything as a normal citizen again. Dr Nyamekeye Griffith was no exception, she gave us some of the challenges in terms of infection. The good thing is that whatever resources we would have need through the Government of Guyana and the Georgetown Hospital they would have provided to us and we are more than thankful for that,” he said.
Dr Persaud added that the successful surgeries is as a result of the hard work and dedication of the entire transplant team and the ancillary staff.

Centre of excellence
Expressing his gratitude to the team, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony committed Government’s support to the team and improvement of the services offered at the GPHC. He added that Guyana has the potential to become the centre of excellence for health in the Caribbean if the investments are made.
“We want to become a centre of excellence here for health for the Caribbean and to offer a range of services here in Guyana and you would see over the next couple of years that we will be rolling out a massive infrastructure development programme, training programmes so that we can lift the standard and quality of medicine here in Guyana. I’m very proud that we have a team of doctors who are teaching and making a name for themselves by the types of surgery and other services that they have been providing. They have stood on the shoulders of their predecessors, but they’re reaching for new heights now,” the Health Minister said.
He added that not only are the doctors making a name for themselves but they are also bringing recognition to the institutions they work for.
“They could have gone anywhere; any part of the world and they would have gotten jobs but they choose to stay here and develop these services and to make sure that our citizens as well as citizens from the Caribbean benefit from these services.”