A dedicated team of physicians make it their mission to support surgical care in Nigeria, especially for children and women.
“These are circumstances that we are not familiar with,” says Carinthian gynecologist Max Lanner, member of the Austrian ‘Medical impulse Team’, which supports charity projects in countries with limited medical infrastructure.
This year too, a team – mainly from Carinthia – traveled to Nigeria. “We brought a total of 16 suitcases with donated items to hand over to St. Mary’s Children and Community Hospital,” doctors Christoph Arneitz, Simone Senica, Max Lanner, Julia Lanner, Nina Kribitz and Teresa Angerer proudly report. Medical technicians Christoph Göttlicher and Silvia Hackl were also part of the Africa mission.
67 operations planned
A total of 67 operations were planned. Lanner: “The focus was on surgical care for children, young people and women and on the expansion of the dialysis department.” This meant that 21 children and 22 women were treated. Ten patients received surgical dialysis access (permanent catheter) to ensure pain-free dialysis. “The collaboration with the head of anesthesia of the hospital and his team was characterized by mutual respect and the willingness to learn from each other,” say the Carinthian doctors gratefully.
But not everything went smoothly
“Because the anesthesia machine on site was no longer working, a mobile ventilator was deployed at short notice so that the procedures could also be carried out safely under general anesthesia,” says Lanner.
In any case, this mission was more than formative for the doctors. “It was incredibly moving, but shocking at the same time. On the one hand you see how poor the people are, but on the other hand it is exciting to see how few opportunities people have there to try to practice medicine,” Lanner summarizes emotionally.
Next year the team also wants to travel to a poor country and help.
Source: Krone
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