Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
FOR ALMOST two years, Elaine Garwood visited public hospitals trying to get a date to have a hernia removed. Her appointments were often postponed because of gun shot wounds and other trauma cases facing hospitals.
In pain, the 40-year-old juice factory employee turned to her doctor, who told her about PRN Relief International, a medical mission which visits Jamaica yearly to assist patients at the privately owned St. Joseph's Hospital and in low income communities.
Yesterday, Ms. Garwood finally had her elective surgery, courtesy of PRN Relief International and St. Joseph's Hospital.
The bonus was that the surgery was free. She is not alone.
At the Barnes Basic School on Burke Road, an estimated 115 persons, among them 50 children, were seen by the medical mission members. Another 150 or more were seen at New Eagles Civic Centre, Bertram Road, Kingston.
LIFE-SAVING INTERVENTIONS
Team members said the mission has led to life-saving interventions over the years.
" ... I have met people with high blood pressure and they did not know it. There are a number of people walking around with with time bombs. They need immediate medical treatment and they don't know. We have had to help them and as a Jamaican, I know the health system can use the help," said Nurse Quindell Mullings Morris, one of five Jamaican-born medial practitioners who are a part of the mission.
Examinations over the years have left good memories, which come from helping to heal the deformed foot of a six-year-old; giving a prosthetic leg to a 13-year-old who lost hers; giving blood for a patient who needed it and watching blood pressure levels fall as medication is given to patients, often for up to a year.
According to Nurse Denise Walsh, a
co-founder of PRN Relief, which first came to Jamaica in 2000, more than 1,500 persons benefitted last year. This year, the target is over 2000, she said.
The medical mission comprises 31 doctors, nurses and residents, who are mostly based at the Bridgeport Hospital and Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut in the United States. They travel to Jamaica to bring medical care and medication to community residents in need.
