10 Jamaicans benefit from free scoliosis surgery

The Duncan Tree is a United States-based charitable organization established by Ouida Duncan to help adolescents with complex spinal conditions in Jamaica since 2012.
Included in the U.S. medical team are three spine surgeons, two medtronic spine representatives, two specialty care neuromonitoring representatives and one surgical technician.

“The value of the surgery, had the patients been flown to New York, would be close to US$250,000 for each patient, including hospital stay, surgeon's and anesthesia fees, implants, instruments, neuromonitoring... all are being provided free of cost by DT in partnership with the KPH,” the health and wellness ministry said.

According to the senior medical officer at the KPH, Dr. Natalie Whylie, the medical mission continues to help our local team to successfully treat scoliosis patients and reduce its surgery list.

Dr. Whylie expresses gratitude to the charity body for the generous assistance to alleviate the expense of Jamaican parents who cannot afford this kind of surgery for their children. 

Founder, president and board chair of the DT, Ouida Duncan, said that the team performs world-class scoliosis surgery not only in Jamaica but also in Trinidad & Tobago and the Philippines. 

“We have highly skilled surgical volunteers who bring blessings in the form of complex spine surgery at no cost to under-resourced patients and advanced training to local staff. This is also a huge savings to the Jamaican government” she said.

She added that “there is also an immeasurable benefit in the form of capacity building in the orthopedic department at KPH where volunteers, residents, nurses and spine techs achieve higher heights in their training and development through knowledge transfer”.

Duncan further noted that “without the support of individual donors, sponsors and volunteers, this mission cannot be sustained. We are urgently appealing for the support of Jamaicans here and across the Diaspora”.

For the past nine years, the foundation has assisted with improving the lives of over 150 Jamaicans.