Hernia International
Gambia Farafenni November 2017
Three experienced surgeons, Jane from UK, Fernando from Spain and me, Leo from Austria, arrived on 18. November 2017 in Banjul and were picked up at the airport. We were taken to a hotel (woodpecker) where we stayed overnight. On Sunday, 19. November 2017 we arrived in Farafenni early in the afternoon having been welcomed by the medical director Dr. Wandifa Samateh and the hospital staff. We became acquainted with the building and especially with the theatre.
Then we checked in in Eddies hotel which was very low standard except for the garden where we spent our evenings “under the mango trees”.
On Monday we started working and operated on 78 patients until Friday night. Our working days were usually from 8:30 a.m. until 8 or 9 p.m. We did not just operate on grown-ups but also on many children, who even came from Senegal.
The anesthesia for our youngest patients was a challenge but perfectly done.
Apart from our medical work we could experience the hospitality and friendliness of our hosts. I am sure we would not have succeeded that much if the hospital staff had not collaborated with us in such a wonderful way.
After our mission was finished we returned to Banjul on Sunday, where my colleagues flew home and I stayed another three days in the capital city.
Our stay in Gambia was a chance to experience medical treatment from another point of view.
The team: Fernando from Spain Jane from UK, Leo from Austria.
Jane screens patients
Every child received a soft toy as a present
Patients staying overnight, waiting for getting screened
After work “under the mango trees”
Leo Mitteregger
December 2017