Mission Report: Chittagong, Bangladesh (6-11th August 2017)
Group picture outside of Nurture General Hospital with local doctors and volunteers
Tucked away from the blaring horns of the main Chittagong roads, between paddy fields and an artillery camp lay Nurture General Hospital.
The 6-storey Nurture General Hospital
Nurture was founded as a charitable dispensary in 1995 by Mdm Nasreen Baqui. With the help of volunteers, well-wishers and organizations, it has since grown into a six-storied hospital for the disabled and a charitable school for destitute children.
After an overnight flight from Singapore to Chittagong with a layover in Dhaka, our team of 12 volunteers from Singapore returned for our second year of performing free hernia operations. In total, 50 operations were performed including 1 hydrocele repair and 49 inguinal hernia repairs. All operations were done under spinal anaesthesia unless contraindicated or deemed to be too high risk, in which case local anaesthesia was used. We arrived bright and early on the second day and started with screening patients and setting up of equipment. Our excellent anaesthesia team got to work immediately, administering spinal anaesthesia and pre-operative prophylactic antibiotics for the first round of patients.
Our anaesthesia team comprising of Dr Zheng Zhongxi, Dr Avinash and Dr Yeoh Chuen Jye (L to R)
Dr Avinash administering spinal anaesthesia
All inguinal hernia repairs were done using the Lichtenstein open mesh repair technique with pre-sterilised meshes kindly provided by Hernia International. We would run up to 5 operating tables at any one time and end the day with screening more patients for the next day. All patients were admitted overnight for monitoring and were reviewed the next day in a daily ward round and discharged to continue follow-up with their local doctors.
Dr Chok and Dr Ling at the daily ward round
“Our mission would like to give a loud shoutout of thanks to Sister Carol Reid from Omagh Hospital (UK) and Dr Aleksander Stanek for donating a diathermy machine for the mission’s use. This most definitely helped improve efficiency and operation performance!”
Dr Darren Chua (L) and Dr Lee Lip Seng (R) performing an open hernia repair
The assistance of Mdm Nasreen, her twin sons Yasmin and Yasir as well as their dedicated team of volunteers comprising of local doctors and medical students were invaluable in ensuring the success of this mission trip. The warmth and hospitality shown to us makes us look forward to returning again next year.
The team. From left to right. Front row: Dr Yvonne Ng, Dr Ling Xiao Shuang, Dr Teo Qi Tian, Dr James Ngu, Dr Goh Aik Wei, Dr Koh Ye Xin. 2nd row: Dr Lee Lip Seng, Dr Chok Aik Yong, Ms Wendy Lim, Dr Avinash, Dr Yeoh Chuen Jye. 3rd row: Dr Zheng Zhongxi, Dr Darren Chua