Africa is Not a Country, continued and 100 cases

The Cardiac Centre is hoping to complete 100 cardiac operations this year.  Approximately half of these will have been completed by the teams from Europe and Mozambique that provide congenital cardiac surgery, with a large proportion of funding from Cuore Fratello and other groups.  The remainder are “adult cases”, meaning not congenital although many of the patients are young people, with rheumatic disease, performed by the local team and visiting anesthesiologists.  This year Dr. Maurizio Meme was here for 6 months and together with Dr. Charles Mvondo and the local team completed approximately 36 cases.  I was here in February and will be here until December.  Dr. Italo Milocco was here in January and September, working with the Mozambique team while Dr. Mvondo sought additional education and training in Leuven, Belgium.  We have completed 5 cases and the first patient was discharged on Friday on post-op day 10. (See photo below with the patient next to Dr. Charles in the center).  The Italian mission team from San Donato will arrive next week and we expect them to complete 13-15 cases.  We have patients in the ward awaiting treatment of conditions not related to their cardiac conditions before proceeding with their cardiac operations.  Unlike in the US, it is difficult to fully evaluate patients before they arrive for their operations.  They often come from long distances and are unable to incur the expense of pre-operative evaluation until the procedure is actually scheduled.  This means that unexpected findings lead to delays in proceeding with surgery.  “Unexpected findings” can include something as simple as a rare blood type, meaning that we are unlikely to have the patient’s blood type readily available and need to seek it locally or import it from the cities.
 

Working with Dr. Charles for the 6 month period beginning in October is Dr. Marta Pugliese, a cardiothoracic surgery resident from Rome.  Below you see Dr. Mvondo discussing a complex aortic case with the team and Dr. Pugliese displaying her notes resulting from that discussion.
 

 

I came across this reflection from a Ugandan journalist titled “Why I Cannot Tell the African Story.”  She describes the many situations of Africa and how they cannot be distilled into a brief summary.  Even within the US we have various cultures, economic scenarios, and even languages.  How much more so in Africa!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34508552
 
Sunday November 1 was All Saints Day.  The Gospel reading included what we call the Beatitudes:

THE BEATITUDES
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.  Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
 

Next time I would like to share some updates on the Lifebox program (www.Lifebox.org).