Rotary Club Facilitates Orthopaedic Clinics
Scoliosis, osteoporosis hip fractures, and rheumatoid arthritis are among a long list of orthopedic diseases that affect adults. In the case of young children, they are affected by flatfeet; toe walking, pigeon toes, bowlegs, and knock-knees. For the past thirty-five years, the Rotary Club of Belmopan, through its Belize Children’s Program, has been holding orthopedic clinics annually to look at children with orthopedic needs. Since Monday, Orthopedic Surgeon, Doctor Coles L’Hommedieu has been conducting clinics in the west and south for children up to the age of eighteen. Today, the medical group was at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Joseph Mena of the Belmopan Chapter of the Rotary Club spoke to News Five about the program.
Joseph Mena, Belmopan Representative, Rotary Club
“Today what we have is our clinic here at the Karl Heusner where the orthopedic surgeon is working with local doctors, checking and screening patients to see which patients need to go up. We also see follow up patients who are in the program and we monitor them every year until they are eighteen years old to make sure if they need to go up for something, we send them back up for tweaking.”
Duane Moody
“Did you guys see that there is a need for it or that there are more cases that are coming up in the years that you guys have been doing this clinic?”
Joseph Mena
Joseph Mena
“Well over the years, the cases have been increasing and we see that there is definitely a need for these services in Belize because some of the surgeries cannot be done here in Belize and so that’s why we take…whatever surgeries can be done, we refer them to local clinics that can do them and then we take the cases that are more severe that need to be done outside.”
Duane Moody
“We note that it is not only in Belize City that the clinic is being held; that there will also be clinics throughout the country. Could you talk to us about that?”
Joseph Mena
“Sure, we held out first clinic on Monday at Loma Luz Hospital in San Ignacio and in the afternoon, on Monday as well, we held it in Belmopan. Yesterday, we were in Dangriga at the Southern Regional Hospital. Today at Karl Heusner and tomorrow is the last clinic at the Northern Regional Hospital in Orange Walk.”
Duane Moody
“The doctor that is seeing these patients is also from the U.S.”
Joseph Mena
“Yes, he is also from the U.S., Doctor Coles L’Hommedieu is his name and he has been working with us now for about five years…five years in the program. We are hoping that we can reach as many Belizean children as possible, to help as many children as possible. My personal hope is that we don’t have to see that many kids in the near future because they are being taken care of, but we will be here and we will see patients for as many years as we need to. As long as there is a need, we will be here to hopefully provide the necessary surgery and care for these kids.”
