American surgeons start performing live surgeries at JPMC

One of the two visiting American surgeons on Monday performed a complicated thyroid surgery at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), which was live telecast at the auditorium of the health facility as well at several other cities of Pakistan, while several surgeons watched the procedure on their laptops and cell phones through video link.

Two American surgeons -- Dr Brian R Untch from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York and Dr Gregory W Randolph from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, are currently visiting the JPMC as part of the 7th Annual Surgical Week for Endocrine Diseases, who would perform live thyroid and other endocrine surgeries, which would be telecast and watched by hundreds of the surgeons in Pakistan.

JPMC surgical units regularly invite US, European and other international surgeons to train their surgeons as well as hundreds of young medical specialists, who cannot afford to go abroad and learn modern surgical techniques.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 7th annual surgical week, Executive Director JPMC Dr Seemin Jamali welcomed and thanked the American surgeons and maintained that their arrival indicated that Pakistan was a safe place for everybody, which was now evident from the visiting international cricket players and eminent health specialists from various countries of the world.

She termed the arrival of the renowned American surgeons to Pakistan and live surgeries performed by them a blessing for Pakistani surgeons, saying that hundreds of Pakistani surgeons would benefit from these live sessions and save thousands of lives at various health facilities.

The course director and one of the organisers of the 7th Annual Surgical Week for Endocrine Diseases, Prof Shamim Qureshi, said that over 200 surgeons watched the live, complicated thyroid surgery performed by one of the surgeons on Monday, adding that scores of surgeons also watched these surgeries on their laptops and mobile phones and asked questions from the American surgeon.

He maintained that the US surgeons would perform a total of six surgeries from February 24 to 27, 2020, while they would also deliver several lectures to train Pakistani surgeons. He added that scores of the Pakistani health specialists would benefit from these exchanges. Another eminent Pakistani surgeon, Prof Naseem Baloch, said they were receiving a large number of patients with thyroid diseases, compelling them to establish a separate surgical unit for the patients.

“Every day, we are seeing about 40-50 thyroid patients at our OPDs. Every year, over 400 surgeons from the entire Pakistan come to attend the training programme where international experts perform live surgeries, give lectures and discuss case studies.”

He said patients visited unqualified practitioners and their cases became complicated. “I would strongly advise people to approach specialists as early as possible so that they could be diagnosed and treated before their disease becomes untreatable.”