Rotary donates equipment to K.H.M.H.

In the past, children suffering from hydrocephalus, what we know as water-head had to travel all the way to the United States to receive costly treatment. On Monday life saving equipment was donated by the Rotary Club to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. News Five was there.

Yvette Burks

“Dr. Grinage of Friends of Pediatrics called myself and asked for a donation that we could possibly look into because there are three babies, one in particular, who really needed the procedure done. So I called Mr. Woods of Cisco Construction and we decided that we will work on it and see if we could just purchase the ones that were needed immediately as well as look into the donation. But luckily we got the donation so quickly that we didn’t need to worry about the other.”

Dr. Francis Smith

“The ventriculus shunts: these are implants that we use for children with hydrocephali. On the street they are known as children with water-heads. Having a problem with the draining of the fluids that are produced by the brain and the covering structures. And what these implants do, is they derive the liquids and fluids accumulated in the brain towards the abdominal cavity. We have been having problems with the treatment of these children for quite some years.”

Smith says that because of the cost of plane tickets, it will be much cheaper for families with children suffering from hydrocephalus to get treatment right here in Belize. The shunts came from Paugh Medical in North Carolina and the estimated cost of the equipment is over eighteen thousand dollars.