Abstract

The first question everybody asks when I tell them I am working in the Cayman Islands is ‘where are they?’ This is understandable. I asked the very question when I saw the advertisement 5 years ago in the overseas section of the BMJ inviting applications for the post of consultant physician with an interest in stroke medicine. Having experienced the practice of neurology in Europe (UK and France), Africa (Sierra Leone and Kenya), the Middle East (Saudi Arabia) and the United States, I couldn’t resist the opportunity of spending some time in the idyllic Caribbean. Of course the attractive salary had nothing to do with it! A few visits to the library and the Internet revealed the most astonishing profile of these amazing islands tucked underneath Cuba in the Caribbean Sea.

The Cayman Islands are a group of three islands situated south of Cuba and west of Jamaica and only