DAUGBO BENIN CAMPAIGN 2018
UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL VIRGEN DEL ROCíO, SEVILLA
MARCH 2018
The idea of the campaign comes from Dr Eduardo Perea del Pozo, 5th year resident of General and Digestive Surgery Department in our “Virgen del Rocío” University Hospital. He proposes the idea of organizing a work group to develop this project. Some of our group join in, though given the limitations of the place we only 7 of us could go.
We contact Dr Teresa Butrón, lady surgeon and president of the Surgeons in Action Foundation who explains to us the documents and conditions of our work.
The mission is made up by the following members: María del Mar Martinez Gomez, nurse from the “Virgen del Rocío”.
Inmaculada Benitez Linero, anaesthetist in the same hospital.
Guionar Rosel Fernandez Castellano, anaesthetist in the same hospital.
Eduardo Perea del Pozo, General and Digestive surgeon in the same hospital.
Abdul Razak Muchret, General and Digestive surgeon in the same hospital.
Juan Manuel Castillo Tuñón, General and Digestive surgeon in the same hospital.
Manuel Bustos Gimenez, general and digestive surgeon in the same hospital.
There were other members of our hospital who also joined in the project with their logistic help during the preparation of the campaign.
Gathering of material was made easy with all the resources of our own hospital and also with the help received from pharmaceutical industry.
Special mention deserves the work of the Sterilization Unit which gave us a place for storage and helped us whenever we needed, as the Electromedicine Unit which gave us an electrical scalpel and an electrical cardiograph.
A great work was also done by the lady nurse María del Mar Martinez with the help of other nurses. Great was also the help given us by the Anaesthesiology and Rehabilitation Department as well as the General Surgery Department.
Once the team gathered we contact the Atlanta Travel Service for our trip. There are few flights, which makes the process difficult and expensive. The “Cirujanos en Acción” foundation gives us some monetary help, and each member pays his own trip.
The conversations with Father Martin, a priest from Benin who is presently in Madrid working at his Ph.D. and helping in the “12 de Octubre” hospital are fundamental for getting us into contact with the “Albergue del Amor Redentor” in Dangho, Benin, and with its directress Sister Opportune.
We start on March 8th after our work with all our material towards Málaga. We spend the night near the airport, and the next day we go to Paris and from there to Cotonou in Benin. We arrive at 23 p.m. After customs, with our permissions from Benin Health Ministry to carry surgical and pharmaceutical material, we are received by two Redentorist sisters (Sister Clare and Sister Rufine). We put all our luggage into their ambulance and we go by taxi or ambulance for 2 hours through roads under construction and by ways till we reach our destination, Dangbo.
We are put up in a house about 5 minutes from the hospital by Dr Antonio Bonou, General Director of S. Berec, which is a firm for medical equipment in the zone of the Guinea gulf. This man gives free lodging for the humanitarian missions that take place in that hospital, and he appears to be very much interested in the improvement of his country.
The sisters give us a hearty welcome. They had prepared a simple supper for us in a cordial atmosphere. Thus we could start to arrange our work for the following day.
The hospital is made up by separated buildings of one story each. Our building has an operating hall on one side and the maternity for with postpartum and consequent care. Just in front is situated the place for surgical patients with 10 beds and a hall for children. In other block there is the hospital pharmacy and the place for consultation. There are other blocks also, given by other countries, without equipment. There is a separate zone, “la maison”, where the sisters stay.
On Saturday 10th March several of us organize the surgical material while others attend to consults. The patients had been seen by Sister Opportune (internal medicine) who made the first selection.
In the consult we are accompanied by Mr. Gabin, mail nurse of the hospital, and Sister Opportune who are our translators. The official language is French, but the majority of them speak the gbé languages fon or yoruba.
We see 92 patients,of which we accept 61, reject 14, and 17 remain in the waiting list.
We have an operating room with two tables, so that we separate the tables with a wooden partition to enlarge space. We have only one respirator, so that priority is established by the anaesthesiology team.
We begin surgery on Sunday 11 March in the afternoon after making ourselves familiar with the space, the equipment and the material we have. Surgery takes place from 8:30 in the morning till we finish with the surgical task (normally till 17-18 hours). In the zone of the surgical stores we find some space for our “dining room”.
In 6 days we have operated upon 61 patients with 68 procedures:
- 29 Inguinal hernias: Plastias with PPL net.
3 M2
1 M3
1 M4
4 L1
10 L2
6 L3
4 L4
2 Umbilical Hernias: Plastias
2 Giant Epigastric Hernias: Plastias
15 Lipomas/giant fibroadenomas: exeresis
7 Goiter:
5 hemitiroidectomies + ismectomies
2 total thyiroidectomies
1 Ca medular of recidive tiroid (thyroidectomy + tumorectomy)
2 Parathyroides tumors: unilateral parathyroidectomy
1 Supernumerary mama: Exeresis
1 Mama fibroadenoma: Exeresis
2 Mama stoppage tumors: Exeresis
1 Umbilical tumor: Exeresis
1 Occipital tumor: Exeresis
2 Hidrocels: Radical cure
1 Varicocel: Exeresis
1 Ascending testicle: Pexia
With respect to Anaesthetics we have carried out:
25 local anaesthics + sedation
31 raquidea anaesthetics
12 general anaesthetic with Orotraqueal Intubation.
In the operation theaters we have been helped by Sister Rufine (nurse and translator) and by the male nurse Gabin, who also was in charge of the presurgical preparation and post-operation care. The patients (except those with local anaesthetic) spent the night in the hospital and were discharged the next morning after a revision by the team. On Saturday May 17 after a visit to the patients we take leave of the hospital, of Sisters Oportune (directress), Rufine, Claire and Francis. They are a community and they run the hospital. The work these Sisters do is excellent, and they take very good care of the patients. We were struck by their generosity, their permanent smile and their joy. The integration of the whole team with them was excellent. They have resolved all our doubts, they have made our stay as comfortable as possible and there has been areal community.
The rural people we have attended to live in an absolute poverty more than 80% of them. But the people (in spite of the climate, the scarcity of resources and the poverty) are very grateful people and one can see happinessin their faces.
The whole team has been satisfied for having been able to overcome the technical challenges caused by the lack of means. We all, anaesthetists, surgeons and our female nurse have worked as a real team against all difficulties. So far as we are aware we had only a problem with a hematoma of the surgical wound. The problem was resolved with an evacuation, and it developed favourably.
Our thanks to the “Servicio Andaluz de Salud” for believing in our project and helping us. To the “Virgen del Rocío” University Hospital, for the Medical Direction which has given us vaccines for hepatitis A and medicines for HIV in cases of accidents, to the General Surgery and Digestive Department, Anaestheology and Rehabilitation Department for helping us constantly with material and medicaments from both Unities of Clinical work, and to the General Hospital Sterilization Service, to the Electromedicine Unit, to the Preventive Medicine Service, to the Pharmacy Industry and to all our coworkers who helped us constantly.
Our thanks to Fr Martin for his readiness ever, to lady Dr. Teresa Butrón for helping us through her “Cirujanos en Acción” Foundation, to Mr. Antoine Bonou and his family for their generosity in putting their house at our disposal during the whole time of the mission, to the Health Ministry of the Benin Republic for her permission to work and for helping us in the customs, to the Sisters who run the “Hopital del Amor Hermoso” in the health zone Adjohoun-Bonou-Dangbo for their great work and their collaboration with us, to the Benin people because we received more than we gave. We hope this will be the first cooperation project from which many can follow.
Dr. Manuel Bustos