Last night's Rotary Dinner at the Radisson was held to honor Dr. Adrian Coye, Belize's first cardio-thoracic surgeon.
He performed the first pacemaker implant in Belize on a child.
It was under the auspices of the Rotary's Gift Of Life Programme which would typically send such patients abroad for the same procedure.
But he did it in Belize - and that's why he was honoured. He explained the procedure to us:..
Dr. Adrian Coye
"The special thing about this case is that a 10 year old young man Jermaine who have been experiencing difficulties from birth and doing this device that I did is not as the same conventional way as you for adults. The technique is modified where we actually make a cut and expose the heart in the lower aspect of the chest and screw in special lead onto the surface of the heart and connect the device which is being
protected by an abdominal muscle called rectus abdominis. This is a young man who will need pacemakers in the future, but we are allowing him to grow and so I think the special thing about this case is that its the first time we are doing a Gift of Life patient here in Belize any form of surgery. In the past this child would have had to go to the US and there would be the extra expense. But the program that have started at Karl Heusner is a very affordable, accessible program using devices that are being made by the world leaders in cardio therapies."
Rotarian Jim Scott was also honoured for his Olympian fundraising for the Rotary.
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