Bodden Town stalwart and celebrated Cayman Islands healthcare professional Nurse Josie Solomon has died.
Health and Wellness Minister Sabrina Turner, in a statement Tuesday on Solomon’s passing, paid homage to her contribution to healthcare in the Cayman Islands and the service she provided throughout her career.
“Nurse Solomon was a staple and an icon of this community. From the early 1970s through until the 1990s she was a key driver in developing the maternal and child health programme. Her work was multi-faceted and included antenatal care, post-natal care, and of course the childhood vaccination programme,” Turner said in her statement.
Solomon, she said, was a driver of Cayman’s national immunisation programme, and her work undoubtedly saved many lives.
“Nurse Solomon built the foundation for public health over her many years of dedicated service, and we are all the better for it,” Turner added.
Solomon played an essential role in forming Cayman’s Public Health Department and is recognised as being instrumental in the creation of the Medical Officer of Health post, the health ministry statement said.
“She was also one of the key persons responsible for the recruitment of Dr Kiran Kumar, Cayman’s first Medical Officer of Health, whom she met while pursuing her studies in Jamaica,” the ministry added.
Nurse Solomon, the statement said, is perhaps best remembered for the vital role that played in the development of maternity and children’s health in the Cayman Islands.
Following her retirement, she continued to be active in the community and would participate in social outings with seniors in Bodden Town.
In 2006, when Bodden Town’s senior centre, a place for the district’s older people to share their heritage and socialise, was opened, it was named after her.
Solomon was surprised at the opening, having no idea the centre had been named after her.
The minister and ministry extended sincerest condolences to the family.
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