Kagando’s first Surgical Trainee

6 weeks ago Kagando was accredited as a training centre by the College of South, Central and East Africa (www.COSECSA.org). Last Saturday we enlisted our first candidate, David Mutiibwa for the 2-year course in basic, but very wide ranging surgery.

David is a voracious worker, who can do 5 caesarian sections during a night on-call, followed by a 3-hour ward round, several major and minor surgeries, interspersed with a dozen surgical outpatients without blinking. Back in September I found him tackling removal of a ruptured spleen, single-handed just a month after registering as a doctor!

We get on well, and I greatly look forward to the next 2 years being one of his joint mentors.

Stop press our consultant paediatrician resigned suddenly, and we urgently need to recruit a replacement.

Fractured spine

The day before yesterday 3 Belgian medical students who were working in Rwanda were visiting the local game park. Their careless driver reversed the vehicle on the edge of a volcanic crater and they rolled over 7 times. Due to the lack of seat belts the girls were thrown about, and two sustained neck injuries. One broke her neck, but despite an unstable fracture her spinal cord was intact. I was operating when one girl came in for suturing.

Kagando hospital has collars, so we could support the neck of the girl with a fracture. We put them up for the night in our home (2 of them on the floor), which eased their pain and shock. We received numerous international phone calls to arrange their care and travel. Next day we slowly drove 30 miles to the airstrip in Kasese, where a small plane came in and air-lifted them to Nairobi for X-ray scans and advice.

Hand grenade injury

Sunday night at 9pm I received a call to say that an 18 year-old cattle herder had picked up a hand grenade (from Idid Amin days) which exploded. As well as loosing his hand, his legs were severely damaged, and he was unconscious when I reached him.

This was just the scenario I have been dreading since I came here. I have been in several war zones but have operated on few cases of bombs and bullets. However amazingly a plastics surgeon and his experienced trainee had just arrived for a 4-day ‘surgical camp’. Andrew Hodges was surgeon here in the civil war years, and had experience of over 60 landmine casualties! Who better in the world to cope with this situation? I thanked God so much.

We removed both legs rapidly, and tried to restore his blood pressure, but sadly he did not survive till morning. At a ‘post mortem’ meeting last night we recommended several important changes in our system for trauma, and also some staff training in the famed ‘Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course.

Photos not recommended for public viewing.

C.E.O.’s Graduation Party

Canon Benson has been Chief Executive for 7 years and a steady helm on ‘KARUDEC’, the multifaceted development organization, of which Kagando hospital and primary school are parts. KARUDEC’s activity has doubled in this time, and its influence spread to tens of thousands. (See www.friendsofkagando.org.uk)

‘Benson’ was born a mile away. Initially a teacher, he joined the Church of Uganda after getting a B Div in Kampala. His new degree is an MA from the Uganda Christian University in Organisational Leadership and Management. He won a credit in a class where over half had failed. Word is out that he’s started a PhD by correspondence!

To celebrate, and bring in the new year Benson and Zerina arranged a thanksgiving service in the local church, followed by a party for 250 at their house. They invited a wide spread of academic and social friends, plus the extended family, and scores of neighbours. Traditional dancers were stunning, food was overflowing, and speeches brought tears to the eyes. Torrential rain interrupted events for an hour, but didn’t dampen spirits.