Mahdia tragedy: Teen flown to NY expected to make full recovery, will be discharged soon

The 13-year-old girl who had to be flown to New York for life-saving treatment after suffering severe burns in the horrific fire at the female dormitory of the Mahdia Secondary School will be discharged soon.

The young girl is expected to make a full recovery following several successful surgeries at the Burns Centre at Northwell Health, Staten Island, New York.

“She is making an excellent recovery, we do anticipate discharge soon and that from burns of this extent with the amount of excellent care she received initially from the GPHC team and then Dr. Michael Cooper at the Burn Center who has been taking care of her, we were successfully able to graft skin and we do expect her to make a full recovery,” Vice President of Global Health Center at Northwell, Dr. Eric Cioe-Pena told the local media corps on Friday.

Dr. Coie-Pena is on a mission to Guyana to perform surgeries at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

He anticipates that the young girl will be able to return to Guyana shortly after she is discharged from the hospital.

She was flown to the Burns Centre on May 27, several days after the horrific fire which claimed the lives of 19 teen girls and a five-year-old boy.

The Northwell team was thanked by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at GPHC, Dr. Robbie Rambaran, for immediately stepping in to treat the young girl when they were contacted.

He noted that within 72 hours they were able to secure passports, visas and a medevac to take the patient overseas

“I want to say that it is free, they are not charging us anything and she has had several surgeries already, skin grafting and is recovering pretty well,” Dr. Rambaran said.