36. TOTAL SURGERIES DONE
Eye 21720
Ortho (Polio) 6120
Dental 9764
ENT 840
Gynecology 987
Plastic/Gen Surgery 1070
Pathology 579
TOTAL SURGERIES 41,080
PATIENTS EXAMINED 200,000
InterContinental
Medicare Projects
37. MEDICAL TEAM VOLUNTEERS: 355
Opthalmologists
Orthopedic Surgeons
Dental Surgeons
ENT Surgeons
General Surgeons
Plastic Surgeons
Anesthesiologists
Gynecologists
Pathologist
Physicians
Volunteers
InterContinental
Medicare Projects
Editor's Notes
When I think of Africa, talk about Africa, so many images, so many human stories come to my mind and clog my emotions
Just last year, little 3 years old girl in Abuja, Nigeria comes with her father. Her face is white with fear and eyes wide open; she has to be taken in for a Polio corrective surgery. She clings to her father and howls. All efforts of the volunteers are failing.
. Finally I try to pacify her. I make funny faces and funny sounds, I make her laugh. Slowly I take her in my lap and signal the nurse to sedate the child. Then she is taken in for surgery
I wonder what that child saw in me, my love, my compassion, my trust or the image of my own grand daughter in my eyes? Or perhaps all of these?.
A similar incident happened in 1998 in Mbarara, Uganda during our first medical mission. Another little girl was brought in for surgery she would not leave her mother and became violent. With great effort I was able to calm her and put her on the operation table.
She looked into my eyes and held on to my index finger until she dozed off with the anesthesia. After her surgery when she woke up and looked around, saw me; slowly she extended her little hand for me.