I will travel with my attending, Dr. Damon Cooney, and ReSurge International to Kiruddu National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda to participate in the development of their hand reconstruction program with a focus on microsurgery. Johns Hopkins' partnership with Kiruddu aims to foster longitudinal relationships for optimal training of local surgeons and sustainable advancements in health care over the long term.
Our focus on hand reconstruction is of critical importance, as 84% of the Ugandan population live in rural areas without access to treatment. Unaddressed hand trauma, including fractures, lacerations of vital structures or burns, significantly impacts the patient's ability to sustain livelihood and perform daily activities. We hope to assist local surgeons in restoring functionality for these patients.
By training local surgeons, our goal is to provide sustainable advancements in hand reconstruction for the local population. Our partnership is long-term as mentioned above. My personal goal would be to return to Kiruddu within the next year to foster continuity of this partnership and training program.
The Patients: Ugandans traveled from across the country to attend Hand Camp at Kiruddu National Referral Hospital. We were able to evaluate roughly 50 patients, from pediatrics to adults, on the first day and operate on about half of them throughout the week. The patients suffered from debilitating post burn contractures, congenital anomalies and functional deficits affects their extremities. We were able to restore function and dignity. One young man had a duplicate great toe on his right foot. He was tormented at school because of this, so he stopped attending class. He believed a witch had cursed his family and that was the reason for the deformity. His life was on hold and he was ashamed of his appearance. During surgery, we were able to remove his extra toe in a short, relatively straight forward case. In removing this extra toe, he regained self-confidence to return to school, functionality to run and play and most importantly a sense of hope for the future.
The Local Team: The residents and attendings at Kiruddu were extremely grateful for our visit and eager to learn. Throughout the week, we worked alongside 15 residents and 3 attendings, countless nurses and students. Cases including post-burn scar contracture release, polyaxial amputations, syndactyly reconstruction, skin grafts, groin flaps, local flaps, nerve transfers, tendon repairs and more.
The ReSurge Team: The trip was just as impactful for all of the volunteers as it was for the patients and local team. The days were long and trying, but a simple smile on a patient's face after surgery made it all worth it. One patient thanked me for making the long journey to "save his life". I will never forget these faces.
