Burundi 2011: 28 May – 19 June

On May 28th we left Fiumicino airport for this umpteenth health mission in Burundi. The group includes Dr. Vincenzo Monti, Orthopaedic, President of F.I.M.A.C. (Italian Doctors’ Foundation for Central Africa), who has been working in Burundi for about 14 years, Dr. Piero Petricca, Orthopaedic, President of the “Andare Oltre” Foundation, Dr. Pietro Ortensi, Hand Surgeon, Mrs. Alessandra Casali, Treasurer of the Andare Oltre Foundation.
During the 20 days we spent in Bubanza Hospital we underwent orthopaedic surgery on 46 patients, 32 of whom were males and 14 females, aged between 1 and 72 years; 29 of these people (60% of the total) were under 16 years of age, while the overall average age was around 17 years.
There were 11 people with club-foot surgery, 2 of whom were bilateral, 4 with osteomyelitis of the lower limbs, 12 patients with limb fractures (2 with bone exposure), 6 patients with paralytic polio, 3 people with pseudoarthrosis, 3 with serious malformations (fibula or tibia agenesis), 3 patients with severe tendon retraction of the hands (Dupuytren’s disease), 4 patients with severe bilateral varus of the knees.
We also checked many of the patients operated on the previous time and carried out about 120 outpatient visits in some health centres in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, in particular at the Missionary Sisters of Charity and at the health centre of Mirango, located in the Kamenge district, which is one of the poorest and most devastated in the whole country. Clothes and some toys were also given to the 60 children who are guests of a Diocesan orphanage located near the Bubanza Hospital. At the end of the mission, we paid, together with FIMAC, all the medical expenses (outpatient treatments, haematochemical and instrumental examinations, hospitalizations and surgeries) of the poor people we took care of.

Published on June 30, 2011

Piero Petricca