In 2014, Dr. Dukhi etched his name into medical journals when he returned from studies in Cuba as Guyana’s first local Neurosurgeon. Upon first meeting him, it hits you all at once. He has a brilliant mind and comforting personality with the evident burning desire to provide internationallyaccepted
neurosurgical services to Guyanese. Dr. Dukhi grew up with his parents, Bisnauth and Sabitri Dukhi, and sister Surika in Skeldon, Corriverton, a rural community in eastern Guyana.
At the age of seven, then a village boy, Dr. Dukhi cultivated the desire to become a doctor after witnessing his grandparents struggle with poor health and with little or no access to proper healthcare.“It was a drive that was born out of witnessing the hardships that the people suffered who
could not have accessed or afforded proper treatment. Not just relatives and friends, but also people of my community who were sick and their condition depreciated at home because they couldn’t afford better health opportunities in Georgetown or Guyana. Upon this realization, I made the decision to pursue medicine and become a doctor. I wanted to help those in need, especially those in far flung areas lacking proper healthcare,” Dr. Dukhi shared. He put his plan into motion upon graduating from the Skeldon Line Path Secondary School, where he wrote the Caribbean Examinations Council
(CXC) exams in 1995 and was adjudged the third best graduating student. Dr. Dukhi immediately
entered the University of Guyana, but at 15, he was too young to pursue medicine; the national policy only permitted students to enroll in medical school at the age of 18 onwards. Instead, he completed a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Biology and Bio- Chemistry in 1999 and earned a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) scholarship to study medicine in Cuba.
“It was challenging,” Dr. Dukhi recalled. “However, my enthusiasm and childhood drive kept me going, overcoming the hardships that young students face in medical school, especially in a foreign
land and speaking a different language,” Dr. Dukhi stated. His brilliance was exemplified when he topped his medical school, graduating as one of the ten best students nationally in Cuba with a Summa Cum Laude GPA average of 5.49. Based on this remarkable achievement, Dr. Dukhi was chosen by the Cuban Government for an opportunity to pursue a specialty programme of his choice.
Initially, he returned to Guyana in 2006 under the instruction of the then government to serve. He worked at both the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the New Amsterdam Hospital serving in the departments of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Orthopedics. On weekends, he held clinics in his hometown at Skeldon.
SPECIALISING
In 2009, Dr. Dukhi took up the scholarship and returned to Havana, Cuba, where he pursued double masters –specializing in Family Medicine and primary health care strategies, and a full residency Master’s Degree, specializing in Neurosurgery at the Calixto Garcia’s Medical University Hospital, considered one of the most globally respected centers.
“I knew from my time working in Guyana that there wasn’t any neurosurgeons here and most of our people with head and severe spinal injuries were either left to suffer, die, or who could afford it were
medivac overseas.” Embracing the challenges, Dr. Dukhi was inspired to pursue this goal knowing that, at the end of the day, there will be light for the people of Guyana. He completed his residency, graduating with first class honours.
“Guyana needed someone with the knowledge and skills to deal with critical injuries such as brain tumors, a fractured skull, and spinal injuries, etc.,” he acknowledged. That is exactly what has happened since he returned in December 2014. “Now I am here to serve and help those in need to
the best of my ability,” said Dr. Dukhi.
MOVING FORWARD
With several years of experience as a physcian and with training in the United States and in the Caribbean, Dr. Dukhi shared the view that Guyana is still
lacking on many fronts in the medical arena. According to him, Guyana lacks a lot of specialty care – not just human resource capacity, but also infrastructural and technical needs. Although we have improved, I think around the world the health sector has advanced with new modern infrastructural and medical developments that have aided advanced health care based on research and clinical evidence-based medicine. Locally, we have a lot of catching up to do,” Dr. Dukhi noted.
He explained that one of the issues hindering Guyana’s development is that this country is one of very few around the globe where healthcare is absolutely free. It is taxing to the nation’s coffers to maintain quality health care continuously free of cost to all.
With Guyana on the verge of becoming a major oil producing country in 2020, Dr. Dukhi is hopeful
that the health sector will see vast improvements.
“We need a lot of financial resources to build infrastructure, develop human resource capacity and improve research to maintain a health sector which is of a high standard comparable with the developed world.” He has started the work, building neurosurgery in Guyana since his return. He is currently training four doctors who are able to perform certain procedures under supervision. Dr. Dukhi is currently networking with the University of the West Indies, Jamaica and McMaster
University in Canada to potentially create a post graduate neurosurgery program in Guyana.
“There is a lot of work to be done; it takes a lot of energy and a lot of commitment to pursue such a
program at the Master’s level. It will involve many local stakeholders who will have to work collectively to create training programs of the highest standard. If we can pull this off in Guyana,
which I do hope in the near future we can, then we are moving in the right direction,” Dr. Dukhi stated. His advice to young people is to follow a career path that they will enjoy. “Although sometimes I would spend nine non-stop hours on a surgery to remove a major brain tumor, I enjoy my job.
Most times, fatigue only sets in after the final suture is in,” Dr. Dukhi stated. Dr. Dukhi recognised that our young people must harness their potential, noting that even if someone leaves high school with 20 subjects, it means absolutely nothing unless they can use it as a stepping stone to creating a
meaningful academic career to serve their country and humanity. In this sense, he also recognised that civil society and the government should facilitate these brilliant minds with opportunities to pursue tertiary education. Since his return to Guyana, Dr. Dukhi has already performed many ground
breaking neurosurgical procedures. For example, when police officer Victor Fausette was shot in the head by a man of unsound mind in 2015, he was operated on by Dr. Dukhi and the warhead was successfully extracted from his brain. Gunshot wounds to the head are always life threatening, but today, young Officer Fausette is back at work, serving the Guyana Police Force in full capacity.
Recently, Dr. Dukhi has also partnered with Precision Spine USA to insert the first Vault C implants in
South America on two paralyzed patients with spinal injuries. He is are now back on their feet after their successful surgeries. As Aristotle said, “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work”.
He ended with a childhood advice, “My dad once told me that all your riches can be taken away from you, but education and knowledge will always stay with you. Your knowledge is what will take you
forward whenever things may appear difficult. Get yourself uplifted; the best way to do so is to get yourself educated.”