The amend­ed Chil­dren’s Life Fund Act has al­lowed an in­ter­na­tion­al med­ical spe­cial­ist to trav­el to Trinidad and To­ba­go to per­form a spe­cialised pro­ce­dure on a child, avoid­ing the need to send the ben­e­fi­cia­ry over­seas for treat­ment.

The pro­ce­dure was car­ried out last Fri­day at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, with the in­ter­na­tion­al spe­cial­ist work­ing along­side lo­cal doc­tors and med­ical teams.

The Chil­dren’s Life Fund Au­thor­i­ty (CLFA) said the pro­ce­dure marked the first time it has fa­cil­i­tat­ed an in­ter­na­tion­al spe­cial­ist pro­vid­ing spe­cialised treat­ment lo­cal­ly un­der the amend­ed leg­is­la­tion.

The CLFA fa­cil­i­tat­ed the in­volve­ment of Dr Fran­cis­co Suarez Anozre­na, an In­ter­ven­tion­al He­pa­to­bil­iary Spe­cial­ist with Fun­dación ETHE. He worked along­side lo­cal spe­cial­ists, in­clud­ing pae­di­atric gas­troen­terol­o­gist Dr Sher­man So­man, in­ter­ven­tion­al ra­di­ol­o­gist Dr Rob­bie Ram­per­sad, pae­di­atric in­ten­sivist Dr Sushil Devashet­ty and adult in­ten­sivist Dr Kevin Khan-Ker­na­han.

Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe vis­it­ed the Wendy Fitzwilliam Pae­di­atric Hos­pi­tal on the same day and met with the ben­e­fi­cia­ry.

The Act was amend­ed in Ju­ly 2025 to broad­en the Fund’s scope and give the CLFA greater flex­i­bil­i­ty in re­spond­ing to the med­ical needs of chil­dren with life-lim­it­ing ill­ness­es.

CLFA CEO Ver­nes­sar Cum­mings said the amend­ed leg­is­la­tion al­lows spe­cialised ex­per­tise to be brought to Trinidad and To­ba­go where clin­i­cal­ly ap­pro­pri­ate, while al­so cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cal health­care pro­fes­sion­als to gain knowl­edge and skills through work­ing with in­ter­na­tion­al spe­cial­ists.