Update: 6:38PM AUSTRALIAN children’s ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon Dr Robert Berkowitz was very pleased of how a surgery on a two-year-old girl suffering from a blocked airway was conducted today.
Dr Berkowitz was flown into the country to specifically conduct an operation on the child and also to assist a group of medical experts from Israel who are here to provide ENT services to patients at Suva’s CWM hospital.
“I’m very pleased of how it went,” Dr Berkowitz told Fiji Times Online. 
“The child has a complicated airway problem,” he said.
He said the child had a scarred voice box since very early in life whereby a tube was put down the child’s throat and as a consequence of that the airway became scarred.
“In order for the child to be able to breathe naturally, to be able to speak, we had to try and correct this problem,” he said.
Australian children’s ENT surgeon Dr Robert Berkowitz. Picture: TALEBULA KATE
He said with the help of the Israel team, they divided the voice box through the scar and they put a special tube in to keep things open while the process of healing occurs.
“The tube will then be taken out in four weeks’ time where the healing process will have taken place.
“The outcome is somehow unfortunately out of our hands hoping that it will heal satisfactorily.”
Meanwhile, Dr Berkowitz who has been practicing airway surgery for the last 28 years said he had fallen in love with Fiji.
Being a first timer here, he said he loved the weather and the ocean.
“It’s just a beautiful country with beautiful people. I just love it here. People couldn’t be nicer to me.”
He files back home tomorrow.