Major Medical Breakthrough

There is big news in the BVI Medical Community this month. The most renowned doctor on the island, Dr. Heskith Vanterpool, founder of the Eureka Medical Clinic and the Bougainvillea Medical Clinic (and also my doctor), performed a breakthrough treatment never before done in the British Virgin Islands. It's been all over the newspaper, and the local access station. You can see the TV headline for yourself:

That's right. The big advance in medical technology this month is the first BVI pacemaker implantation. The first pacemaker implantation in the world, for those who are unfamiliar, occurred in 1958. By the mid-1970s, implanted pacemakers had become common throughout Europe and the US. Now, over 50 years after the first pacemaker was implanted, the British Virgin Islands have finally caught on and are beginning to do this procedure as well. Up to this point, any patient needing such complex treatment would either have had to go to Puerto Rico, or suffered along without it.

I'm glad I can easily go to the US for medical treatment when needed.