Over the past 4 months, we've shown you 4 cases where tertiary level care given at the KHMH has produced the kind of results not seen in Belize before and if they aren't medical miracles, they do come close. So what's been the difference? Much of it has been from one relatively young doctor and we found out more about him and the years of study he had to invest to become a brain surgeon.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
They were cases that you followed at home: Lisa Garoy; the young mother who was thought to have been paralyzed for life and is now able to move her feet after spinal surgery; there's also the case of special constable Charles Grant who shot himself in the head as he was trying to elude capture and the law, now he's well enough to face charges. There is also this young man Wilfred Dixon who was left in comatose after a traffic accident. He recovered almost miraculously. Finally there is the case of Anthony 'notorious babb' Lewis who survived a gunshot to the back of the head.
They all have one thing in common. They were treated by this man: Dr. Joel Cervantes, the first and only Belizean neurosurgeon to practice in Belize. Humble and unassuming, this doctor studied for 16 years in Mexico to gather the knowledge he needed to perform spine and brain surgeries.
But all those years of study haven't put him on a pedestal, these days as he paces the halls of the KHMH he prefers to simply be called Joel, and he takes no credit for the work he's doing.
Dr. Joel Cervantes,
"The credit is not only mine. A lot of people give me the credit as such but to be honest with you, starting from the emergency response technicians who do a very good job in the way they tend to these people outside of the hospital, they transfer them to the hospital, we have to commend very highly the people who work in the Accident and Emergency Department. Its teamwork and then the other specialists because usually when a patient comes in with trauma, its not only the neurosurgeon, its also general surgeon, the internists; it depends. If it is a child it is the pediatrician, emergency doctors who are there, the nurses specifically, both in the Emergency Ward, operating theatre, in the ICU unit-so it's a big team effort and even the unheard of heroes, perhaps the technician who took the CT scan, the lab technician who took the blood samples. So I personally believe a lot of it is teamwork."
While Cervantes is quick to offer the team credit for the work he does, the truth is that being the only Belizean neurosurgeon was a path he had to trail blaze and nothing about his 16 years of study was easy.
Dr. Joel Cervantes,
"Tough because my mind was always on home, missing home but the objective was to come back."
And now that he is back he says he gives it his all, more often than not with unbelievable results.
Dr. Joel Cervantes,
"I work hard. I work as sincerely and as honestly as possible, those are my basic principles. I am a God fearing man so I do believe I am an instrument of God as such and because my mother believes in teamwork, I know I have a limit but every time I go in to do a specific case I give it my best and I am surprised by some of the results. To be honest with you, its not all my work."
And while it may not be all his work he sure has a lot to do with it. He concedes that at times it is overwhelming but says there is where other Belizeans can come in. He says he is willing to give the blueprint of his career to anyone who is interested.
Dr. Joel Cervantes,
"We have young ladies or young men who are capable of this in the sense that just for the fact that we are Belizeans and Belizeans are tough people as such. To go out there and to be able to study and work very hard to reach an objective like this is something very realistic and I've said this once before, I would be more than willing to try to coach another countryman or countrywoman who would interested in taking up this career under my personal experience and the way to reach this objective."
If any one takes up that offer, it is almost a certainty that under his tutelage, Belize could someday - maybe another 16 years from now - lay claim to two homegrown neurosurgeons.
And while all that's the upside, the downside is that we can't quite say how much longer those services will be offered at the KHMH. That's because the often tempestuous relations between Cervantes and the hospital administration have hit a contractual snag and when we checked today, he wasn't on duty and wasn't listed to be available anytime this week.
