Visiting Neurosurgeon to perform operations

Since last year, Dr. Robert Lacin a Neurosurgeon of Wayne Memorial Hospital in Goldsboro, North Carolina, has been successfully treating Belizean children with brain tumors. According to Dr. Egbert Grinage, a Pediatrician at Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, the voluntary services that Lacin and his team provide are essential. He says some of the operations performed are very expensive and most of the parents do not have the money to pay for the surgery. Grinage says Lacin has set up a Belize Humanitarian Association in his hometown that has managed to collect money to treat at least six Belizean children a year. Presently, the Neurosurgeon is in Belize not only to educate Belizean physicians and surgeons on how to manage and treat patients with raised pressure in the head, but some Belizean babies suffering with the condition will be operated on here at home this weekend. According to Dr. Grinage, the condition, which causes a build up of fluid in the brain affects a child’s normal growth and can be fatal if it is not treated early. The operations, scheduled for Saturday, are not only being viewed with much optimism by the parents of the young patients but since our surgeons will also be shown how to do the procedure, Grinage says this means babies will no longer have to wait to go up to the United States but receive early treatment right here at home. News Five spoke with Dr. Lacin about tomorrow’s surgery.

Under the guidance of Dr. Robert Lacin, four Belizean babies will undergo surgery this weekend at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital to treat a condition known as intracranial hypertension or what is locally known as “water head”.

Dr. Robert Lacin, Neurosurgeon

“I have seen the babies very briefly; I have not gone over their records yet, I do not know exactly the reason why they have hydrosephalus. Whatever the reason is, the goal is to decrease the pressure of their heads. We’re going to do an operation, which is an insertion of a tube in the brain which goes under the skin down to the abdomen and drains the fluid continuously to the abdominal cavity. Externally there is nothing that can be visualized because everything is under the skin. The chances that this will work is very high; whether the children are going to do well in regards to their mental capacity would be difficult to tell since they are so difficult to assess at this age.

But essentially if the brain is softer we can increase pressure but decreasing the pressure would give the brain the maximum chances of recovery.”

According to some of the parents we spoke with, they are just glad to have their babies get the operation they so desperately need. Zelda Bodden is the mother of two year old Dylan Bodden. It will be the second time little Dylan will be operated on.

Q: “Zelda how do you feel as Dylan’s mother knowing that tomorrow he will undergo surgery to relieve the pressure that’s on his brain?”

Zelda Bodden, Mother

“Well I’m just very excited and glad, to all the doctors that are involved in this and I am happy that Dylan will be able to get the operation.