“We have to take away our narrow- mindedness and look at things from a broader perspective. If we do this we can be a force to be reckoned with in the Caribbean. We should be foremost in health, we shouldn’t have division. If we have harmony we will go places.”By Sharmain GraingerIt was author Kiley Kellermeyer who said that “fear is a powerful enemy, but not one tooDr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman is a ‘Special Person’strong to overcome.” This very notion was embraced by a young boy who was able to overcome his fear of blood and injections and other things medical to become a doctor.That young boy was born Carl Alton Hanoman and he was intensely fearful each time his parents would take him to visit a doctor for just about any reason. The fear was embedded in his psyche,Kanken Backpack Sale, but he was determined to fight this fear with every fibre of his being; and he did.This once fearful young boy is one of the better doctors that our nation has produced.Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman has already racked up over 36 years as a versatile medical practitioner. He has diligently served many patients both in the public health setting and through his still thriving private practice – the Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman Medical Clinic situated at Brickdam, Georgetown.He commenced his private practice in 1983 and today also offers his service at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital, where he attends to certain cases. He has attended to many notable individuals in society and has for a number of years offered his service to the Guyana Cricket Board.He has received many awards for his efforts over the years.EARLY DAYSDr. Hanoman was born and raised in New Amsterdam, Berbice, to prominent, well-to-do parents, Harry and Estelle Hanoman. He was the last of his parents’ 10 children.His education foundation was at the Mission Chapel Primary School and later Berbice High. But despite his fear of doctors, even as a young boy, he somehow had a desire to join this very profession.Displaying a few of the awards he has received over the years.“I just had this feeling that I should become a doctor…this was because I always had a passion to face my challenges, and facing this fear was a major challenge for me that I intended to somehow overcome,” said Dr. Hanoman during a recent interview.As a boy, he would carry himself as a doctor. His passion for the profession was so evident that “everybody in the (Berbice) neighbourhood use to call me doctor…I use to make sure that everybody knew me too,” he recalled. And he wanted them to know him as Max – a name he’d ascribed to himself. The name Max he coveted from a heavy-set German boxer named Max Schmeling, who was heavyweight champion of the world between the period 1930 and 1932. The young Hanoman was quite chubby as a boy and was convinced that that named suited him just fine. In fact he started to introduce himself as Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman and completely disregarded his given middle, Alton, since he never appreciated it anyway.After completing secondary school, he quickly delved into the world of work. He functioned as a laboratory technician at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). This required that he move to the capital city of Georgetown,Cheap NCAA Basketball Jerseys, where he was accommodated by his older sister, Dr. Evelyn Hanoman, who was already becoming a popular Optometrist.FULFILLING A DREAMHe would continue at the GPH for one year before he applied and was accepted at Dalhousie University in Canada to further his studies. There he completed a degree in Molecular Biology which is a branch of science that deals with, among others, DNA, RNA and proteins and their biosynthesis, as well as the regulation of these interactions.But after he gained his degree, his next move was to apply to the University of the West Indies (UWI) to study Medicine. This was during the early 1970s, and Dr. Hanoman revealed that during those days no Guyanese could have attended UWI without approval being granted by Government. He did not receive the necessary permission.A painting that aptly captures a young Dr. Hanoman on his graduation day.“It wasn’t as easy as it is today to study Medicine; you couldn’t just get into a medical programme without first getting the government’s okay,” Dr. Hanoman related.In fact, he later learnt that the Government of the day was convinced that there were too many Hanomans already in the medical profession. While a few of his siblings were in the medical field, Dr. Hanoman had quite a few other relatives already practicing Medicine.“My entire family was in two professions – Medicine and law – and I wanted to do Medicine so badly,Air Max Australia,” recounted Dr. Hanoman.Not being able to follow his dream of doing Medicine was very disappointing. But he wasn’t prepared to sit down and waste time. Instead he headed to England where he decided to do the next best thing – pursue law. His studies there would only last one year as he became aware of the fact that his studies in Medicine could be possible in India.He was soon after preparing an application, and before long was on his way to Bombay, India, to fulfil his heart’s desire.“I never regretted going there; I was able to learn a lot. It was a place where I was able to see a lot of Clinical Medicine…it was perhaps the best training I could have been exposed to,” Dr. Hanoman reflected.DEDICATED SERVICEAfter completing his studies, he noted that he wasn’t too keen on returning to Guyana because of the prevailing political climate. He contemplated going to Canada, but after learning that there was a shortage of doctors here, he opted to return.Upon his return in 1979, the young Dr. Hanoman was placed at the Georgetown Hospital. He remembers working closely with the late Dr. Mohamed Bacchus in the area of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and developed quite a knack for this aspect of Medicine. He also attended a lot of medical conferences, where he learned a great deal.Attending a press conference at the Georgetown Hospital during his recently ended tenure as Board Chairman.He believes that his attendance of these conferences, globally, helped to considerably expand his horizon and, by extension,Cheap Shoes Uk, strengthened his medical foundation. He later became a medical educator at the public hospital too. However, Dr. Hanoman is convinced that he was able to progress well as a doctor because, “I had a really good mentor. Dr Bacchus was the best mentor I could’ve asked for.”But he also gained a great deal of exposure to the practice of Medicine while working with Dr. Enid Denbow, another reputable medical practitioner.He remembered that his training in Medicine was so intense and diverse that he was able to offer specialist care in a number of areas.“You don’t find many doctors being trained the way doctors in my day were…I was able to do a little bit of everything. We were trained that particular way because there weren’t too many doctors in the system then,” said Dr. Hanoman, as he considered the many doctors in the public health system today.He pointed out that because of the vast number of doctors being trained today, “you have to specialise in a particular area. You have to pick the area you want to be in and be good at it. The world is moving in this direction – specialisation of doctors and nurses is important today.”But practising at the GPH back in the day was no easy task,Cheap Wholesale Shoes Australia, given the fact that there weren’t too many doctors at the time.“The hospital was so busy; I use to work day and night…I stayed at the doctors’ quarters in those days, and because we were so few we would operate from morning till night a lot of times,” Dr. Hanoman said.He evolved as a doctor and was soon being recognised for being particularly meticulous in the profession. It was only logical that he would become involved in the work of the Guyana Medical Association, and eventually was elected its Treasurer and later President. He was elected President in 1995 and held that position until the year 2000.“During those years the Association was very vibrant…we did so many things during those years – we gave awards to outstanding doctors and that was a huge feature. We brought in specialists to talk to them; the Association was a really big thing then,” reminisced Dr. Hanoman.It was while he was President of the Association that Dr. Hanoman also started lecturing at the University of Guyana (UG). In fact, he eventually became the Director of the School of Medicine in 2002 and remained there until 2010.INSTRUMENTAL ROLENotable too is that Dr. Hanoman was instrumental in putting measures in place for UG to secure international accreditation from the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) in 2009. He even went on to become a Vice President of CAAM-HP the following year.CAAM-HP, which is based in Jamaica, is the accreditation body that was established in 2003 under the aegis of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The body is empowered to determine and prescribe standards and to accredit programmes of medical, dental, veterinary and other health professions on behalf of the contracting parties in CARICOM.The university, however, lost its accreditation in July of last year.But Dr. Hanoman, functioning in the capacity of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Georgetown Hospital, again came to the rescue earlier this year to put measures in place to put the university back on track to regain international accreditation. The University is expected to know its fate by July of next year.“I not only took the university to a place where it got for the first time its international accreditation, but I helped to move the intake of medical students from 18 to 35,” said Dr. Hanoman, who along with current Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Emanuel Cummings, collaborated back in the day to form a Post Graduate Medicine programme at the Georgetown Hospital.This venture was premised on Dr. Hanoman’s vision to pave the way for health tourism in Guyana.“We had a plan to have all of the graduates of the medical programme at the university do a post graduate programme. This was the vision we had, but for some reason politics kept affecting this plan,” said an evidently disappointed Dr. Hanoman.According to him, the idea was to have a programme in place that in the long term would help to enhance the capabilities of peripheral hospitals with a view to reducing the existing pressure on the Georgetown Hospital.“The vision was to train doctors in specialist areas at the Georgetown Hospital and don’t just leave them there, but send them to work at the peripheral hospitals – Suddie, New Amsterdam, Linden and so on,” said Dr. Hanoman, as he stressed the need to have specialists in each Region of the country.“Of course this vision never finalised, because for some reason politicians wanted to interfere. I am disappointed because a lot of money is utilised in the health system but we don’t always see the full results. The poor people of this country do not benefit to the extent that they should!” Dr. Hanoman said emphatically.BROAD PERSPECTIVEDr. Hanoman, who was appointed to the position of GPH Board Chairman earlier this year,Braden Holtby Jersey, said that his vision was always to revamp the institution so that that its operation was nothing less than efficient. The GPH Board was dissolved at the end of last month and Dr. Hanoman said that he is saddened that all of his efforts were not truly appreciated and therefore were not fully realised.“Some people interfere without a vision, without a reason, and they want to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do, even if they are wrong. I know about getting things done and I know in the case of the (Georgetown) Hospital, the nation should be benefiting from many free services,” Dr. Hanoman stressed.The hospital, in his estimation, should have long been offering on a regular basis services including hip and knee replacement surgery, and surgery for hydrocele and hernia, among others, all at no costs to patients.“We shouldn’t be having all these lines at the hospital and taxing the state…people must have benefits, and I hope that President David Granger notices and has the vision to take things by the collar,” added Dr. Hanoman.But he is convinced that with good governance there is hope for the health system to be improved. He however cautioned that “we have to take away our narrow-mindedness and look at things from a broader perspective. If we do this we can be a force to be reckoned with in the Caribbean. We should be foremost in health, we shouldn’t have division. If we have harmony we will go places.”The husband to Leontine and father of four, Drs Carlin, Harry, Hans,Jerseys Wholesale, and the youngest Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman Junior, today lives keenly by the motto “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul.”“I am not saying people should not be rewarded for what they do, but don’t overdo it. Have some vision and think what is best for the people,” Dr. Hanoman underscored, as he amplified that any good medical professional “would try to meet the needs of the people; try to have a human and sympathetic approach in whatever is done…”It is for his years of service and unrelenting passion for the medical profession that today Kaieteur News is bestowing the title of ‘Special Person’ to Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman.