• Submitted by: admin
• Health and Medicine
• 12 / 09 / 2006

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Skerrit said he will receive medical treatment in the communist-run nation to remove a foot-long metal pin that was placed in his leg after a 1991 car accident.

"For the last couple of years my right leg has been giving me trouble and I have been advised by doctors in Dominica and Cuba to have the pin removed," Skerrit said during a press conference.

When asked why he opted to have the operation in Cuba instead of Dominica, Skerrit quipped that recovery in his native country would be complicated by the "tens of thousands of visitors I would have every day".

Cuba has become a destination for other Caribbean political leaders seeking medical treatment.

Haitian President Rene Preval made a surprise trip to Cuba on Wednesday to undergo medical tests for a prostate condition. Preval's office said the leader left for "health reasons" related to the prostate surgery he underwent in Cuba earlier this year.

Trinidad Prime Minister Patrick Manning had a heart valve replacement surgery in Cuba in 1998 and returned in 2004 to have a pacemaker implanted.

Source: The Jamaica Observer