FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Cambridge High School student Shantoy Lawrence was still in the University Hospital of the West Indies' (UHWI) Intensive Care Unit recovering from open heart surgery, up to press time yesterday.

The teen, who underwent surgery on January 7 , has been slowly recovering, but according to Dr Roger Irvine, head of the team that operated on her Tetralogy of Fallot heart disorder, she's not out of the woods yet.

"She is doing fine, but she is not out of the woods yet," warned Dr Irvine two weeks ago. "We will keep adjusting her medication and gradually reduce them until she is able to manage on her own. Additionally, she's undergoing physiotheraphy to bolster the functioning of her lungs, the main danger at this point is that posed by secretions and the possibility of infection. That's what we have to watch out for at this very delicate stage," he added.

Dr Irving, the only cardiothoracic surgeon on staff at the UHWI, led a team of two doctors and three anaesthesiologists, nurses and assisting medical personnel in an over-seven-hours operation on the young Lawrence last Thursday. The other members of the team that assisted Dr Irvine were Dr Sunil Stephenson and Dr Gail Caruth; Anaesthetic Consultant, Dr. Dave McGaw who was assisted by, Dr Trudy Harper-Smith and Dr Melanie Thomas; Perfusionists, Fitzhugh Forrest and Dorothy Pinnock; Nurses and scrub technicians, Phillipa Cole-Anderson, Keron McKenzie, Shawna-Kay Hewitt, Careen Clarke-Bennett, Karen Vidal-Graham and Christina Banton.

Lawrence's story, which was published in the Observer West last November, triggered a global response from readers who pitched in to come up with the medical fees for the surgery as well as after-care costs.

But the kindness of the readers -- two of whom underwrote the entire cost of the surgery and heart kit with anonymous donations of J$497,000 and US$1,250 respectively -- represented just one aspect of Lawrence's luck.

The other aspects lay in the fact that she managed to beat the odds against getting the operation so early in the year, or at all given the resources available to the hospital.

UHWI officials admitted during the Daily Observer's weekly Monday Exchange forum two weeks ago that there is a tremendous problem where the hospital's ability to handle heart surgeries is concerned. According to Dr Trevor McCartney, UHWI's CEO, some patients have been placed on a very long waiting list for surgery as there just aren't enough 'operating opportunities'.

In the meantime, their conditions continue to deteriorate even as UHWI contemplates plans to establish a heart centre.

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