Vanita Tageram, 25, is the first patient in Guyana to undergo an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) surgery which was performed by Neurosurgeon Dr Amarnauth Dukhi, and the staff of the Dr Balwant Singh Hospital.
This was announced yesterday by First Lady Arya Ali who explained that earlier this year, Vanita had reached out to her office for assistance after she was diagnosed with a large deep brain AVM.
The diagnosis was made by Dr Dukhi.
“I immediately made contact with both Dr Dukhi and Dr Madhu Singh of Dr Balwant Singh Hospital to devise a plan to assist Vanita,” the First Lady explained.
A brain AVM is a life-threatening condition and usually provokes seizures, headaches and intracranial hemorrhage which is usually fatal.
In this type of AVMs, endovascular and radiosurgery are performed, but usually only in first world countries with highly advanced health care systems. Because of the exorbitant cost attached to overseas treatment, Dr Dukhi and his overseas-based interventional radiologist decided to perform this minimally invasive surgery locally.
Dr Dukhi and his team have been successfully performing endovascular surgery locally but only for brain aneurysms thus far. This would be the first endovascular embolization done in Guyana for brain AVMs.
“To drastically reduce the cost of this surgery, Dr Dukhi waived his professional fees, while Dr. Singh offered her Cath Lab and hospital fee free of cost. All the medical supplies needed were procured from USA and I was very happy to assist with offsetting some of the cost,” the First Lady said.
Vanita’s surgery was done on February 4 where the three major feeding arteries were blocked using Onyx as the embolization agent. This was done via a femoral artery catherization to the brain in the Cath lab at the Dr. Balwant Singh Hospital.
After her successful surgery, the First Lady visited Vanita on Tuesday to spend some time with her and wish her a speedy recovery.
