IHC’s Pediatric General Surgery Mission for Kids

The International Hospital for Children assists countless number of children each year; either by sending them abroad for treatment that’s not available in Belize or by bringing in specialists to care for them. This weekend, the IHC is facilitating a Pediatric General Surgery Mission. Dr. David Lanning, the pediatric surgeon that recently saved the life of baby Faith Ortiz, is flying in this weekend for the clinic, which covers fifteen medical conditions in children. Belize’s Country Representative for the IHC told News Five why parents should bring out the kids to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital this weekend.

Milagro Garel, Country Representative, International Hospital for Children

milagro garel

“We are having the first ever Pediatric General Surgery Clinic in Belize. And this has come about as a result of seeing so many children with conditions that we have in the past been taking to the states and for the first time with Karl Heusner we’re going to be working with Doctor Lanning, who’s gonna be repairing children with conditions like imperforate anus, with Hirschprung disease, gallstones, tumors depending on the chest and different masses in the abdomen, different—they call it kinks in the intestines as well. So we would like the public to know that any children that are suffering from conditions as these can come to our clinic on Sunday.”

Delahnie Bain

“And the services will be free?”

Milagro Garel

“Our services are always free. The children only have to pay for diagnostics if they need like a CT scan or something like that.”

Delahnie Bain

“Do you think that this is something that will be—you said that it’s the first one—can we expect to see it again in the future?”

Milagro Garel

“Of course because there’s no way—we already have over fifty patients that have been registered and there’s no way that we will be able to accomplish all those surgeries. But more than anything, we are looking forward to working with the local surgeons in the country to leave behind some wealth of knowledge and to be able to do it through telemedicine as well as working together with them here in Belize and we have in the past taken children with Esophageal Atresia and hopefully we will be able to also leave some knowledge on that so we don’t have to be taking the children back to the states for surgery.”

The clinic starts at eight o’clock on Sunday morning.