Today an “operativo medico” specializing in hand surgery starts at the Central Romana Hospital – one of the many “operativos medicos” held at the facility every year. The operativo will run until the 10th of May and the medical team hope to operate on (for free) up to 70 people in need who have hand deformaties.
Dr. José F. López Larache director of the hospital, told casadecampoliving.com that these surgeries will be performed by a team of doctors who came to the country from the United States and are led by Dr. Michael Murphy, of Union Memorial Hospital, in Baltimore, MD.
Dr. López said the operativo is aimed at children and adults with orthopedic conditions, but that this time they will focus on higher extremidandes (hands).
“Murphy is perhaps one of the two best hand surgeons in the United States. He also comes with six other members of his team who are also orthopedics”, he said.
Dr. López at the Central Romana Hospital, La Romana
Before surgeries start, patients undergo a prior review several weeks before to see if they qualify. Yesterday -Sunday May the 5th-, was the last day of evaluations with all the people who qualified for surgery. There they performed various diagnostic and laboratory tests, which are routine in all types surgery.
Central Romana Hospital has an area of surgery that has a neurosurgery-orthopedic operating room, general surgery operating room and an endoscopic surgery operating room. Dr. Lopez said that Murphy and his team will use only the neurosurgery-orthopedic operating room, where a robotic arm will facilitate their job.
Every year around 150 people go-from all provinces of the country to the Central Romana Hospital (the Centro Medico)- interested in this surgery, but of these just 60 or 70 are selected for the operativo.
This activity is totally free thanks to the sponsorship of the Central Romana Corporation, who contributes greatly to the welfare of the La Romana region and the entire Dominican Republic. “If they have a surgical problem that we can solve, we solve it. We attend to people with hand deformaties from accidents, burns, fractures that have not been corrected properly and broken tendons.”
View of the front of Central Romana Hospital
This operativo medico is sponsored by the Central Romana Hospital, which has been open for the last 31 years.
It began in 1982 with Dr. Francisco Gonzalvo, who was the director of hosptial at that time and now continues with a new phase that Dr. Murphy has developed, which integrates younger doctors.
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