By: Amar Persaud
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) continues to break barriers as its surgeons perform groundbreaking procedures which have never before been attempted in Guyana.
This time around, the successful operation was conducted on 58-year-old Keith Murray, a cancer patient.
Murray, a father of three, underwent the laparoscopic surgery in March 2021, after he was diagnosed with stomach cancer last year.
The laparoscopic surgery is a less invasive method and it was the first time an operation of this nature was performed in Guyana.
Laparoscopy is a type of surgical procedure that allows a surgeon to access the inside of the abdomen (tummy) and pelvis without having to make large incisions in the skin. This procedure is also known as keyhole surgery or minimally invasive surgery.
In the past, the open-surgery method would have been used, posing more risks for the patients.
“It is a major surgery, it represents one of the general major surgeries that can be done and we were successful in carrying out the surgery laparoscopically whereby we inserted four small incisions or holes in the abdomen and then we put in the instrument, look at the monitor and we cut the stomach in half, removed the lower half of the stomach and then we joined the small intestine, so the remainder of the stomach, to allow continuity,” explained Dr Hemraj Ramcharran, one of the lead doctors on the surgical team.
The other doctor who performed the surgery is Dr Jagnanand Ramnarine.
“Laparoscopic has many advantages over open-surgery in terms of faster return to work, the patients are on their feet the very next day, they’ll be able to eat earlier, they’ll be able to get back to their normal life faster, there are less chances of hernias and you know, a long open scar just looks ugly compared to laparoscopic surgeries,” Dr Ramcharran added.
Reflecting on the case during a press conference hosted by the GPHC on Monday, the doctors recalled when Murray first came to them with symptoms of heartburn.
“He actually started presenting with typical symptoms of heartburn where they got an upset stomach pain in the epigastric region where is in the upper part of the stomach so he went and did an endoscopy where as they put a camera into the throat and visualise the stomach and took off samples what we call tissue biopsy and it came back as adenocarcinomas of the stomach,” Dr Ramcharran explained.
“Adenocarcinomas of the stomach is fourth most common cause of cancer worldwide in men and is the seventh most common cause in women. In America, it is estimated that 1 out 96 men will have gastric cancer by the age of 72 this has to do with changes in lifestyle, the fast food we like Church’s and KFC, and also Barbecue and smoking and some other risk factors.”
After diagnosing Murray, the doctors determined a course of treatment.
“It was the distal part of his stomach so what he needed was a distal gastrectomy where we remove the distal part of the stomach and the cancer and also, we had to join back piece of the stomach so that food could actually pass,” the doctor explained, noting that Murray was very forntunate to have detected the disease early or else the situation could have become more life-threatening.
“After surgery, Mr. Keith received chemotherapy and then he had a repeat CT-scan which showed there was no reoccurrence of cancer so he is more or less cancer-free. This represents a major milestone for us at GPHC and Guyana because this is the type of surgery that is being done in the developed countries and we are happy with the success that we had,” Dr Ramcharran expressed.
He noted that they are currently training young surgeons to perform laparoscopic surgery so that they can make it a routine whereby patients can choose between this less invasive method or the more traditional open-surgery procedure.
Meanwhile, Murray, who is contractor from Linden, Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice), is grateful for his second shot at life.
“My stomach was getting big so I decided to go on a diet and on the 19th of June last year I felt weak so I decided to go to the hospital and they checked my blood, my blood count was low, so, they tried to figure out what caused me to lose the blood, so they went checked up everything they didn’t finding anything.”
“So, I came down here and then I went and did an ultrasound and then is where I found out there’s a mass in my stomach and they told me that the mass was what was causing me to lose the blood, then is where I started to get into the clinic with Dr. Ramcharran and others,” Murray recalled.
The man posited that he had great trust in the doctors after they committed to help him get better.
“I’m here now, I’m feeling good about everything and I’m cancer free,” Murray expressed.
