Rewarding Cooperation that Needs Continuity

Rewarding Cooperation that Needs Continuity

Tesfahans Isaak

It has been an experience for the last three years that a multinational group of health professionals, including doctors, nurses and technicians from the Germanbased Hanover University to visit Eritrea and carried out cardiac surgery on Eritrean patients who have long been suffering from heart disease. During their stay here, members of the medical team conducted various operations at the Orotta Hospital, besides discussing on the possibilities of expanding the hospital that comprises cardiac surgery and cardiac intensive care unit.

Basically, this group of doctors maintained some contacts with Eritrea though Dr. Zeremariam Teweldemedhin, an Eritrean national who has been working with them for almost twenty years. It is through this person that the doctors knew about the possibilities and chances to come here and provide service in their field of profession. Eventually they decided to realize this objective and gathered some twenty people who are willing to get the job done. It is crystal clear that obtaining fund for that particular task is quite hard as cardiac surgery is a demanding job that requires a lot of material and money prerequisites. Hence, only three months after they had founded their organization they were able to do the first trip, and that was in 2008.

So far, according to the surgical team members, the team mainly gets the fund to run the work from a couple of members who willingly back the goodwill of the team. There are also a lot of private people who share their contribution including medical companies that support with free supplies like medicine and other things, financial and material.

Otherwise, when it refers to the nurses, doctors and technicians of the team are specialists for many years in their own field so that they know well what they really do.

As to the relations and cooperation among the surgical team and the patients, Anesthesiologist Dr. Lobbes Wolfgang, a member of the team witnessed that it really feels them satisfying to be able to help these people here and see the patients “how they come, how they smile, how they enjoy that somebody comes and helps them in this particular problem which otherwise can not be solved” locally. “This is very rewarding and will keep us going for many years,” he promised.

With a total of 22 staff, the team includes two students who also are interested in the objective of the team deciding to come here on their own to find out what the team does and are willing to help and participate. In this last visit of theirs, the team operated twelve patients with the provision of special surgical intensive care unit.

Speaking to the experience he had with the Eritrean doctors and other staff, Dr. Lobbes indicated that Eritrea has very bright and friendly doctors and staff who have a lot of knowledge, and above all hardworking and cooperative. “And fortunately, there is not a lot of surgery going on while we are here as the hospital is very kind to leave the facilities to us for this period,” he extended his appreciation.

For the team’s main philosophy that led to the founding of the organization was that it is useless to just come here and bring all the staff operating a couple of patients and go home again, the team supports that the only thing useful is if on the long run they could teach people what is necessary to be done which they already have succeeded in doing that on a small level with the staff from the ICU, and they found them willingly participating in treating patients. Among which, they found the OR nurses and head nurses really great that they contribute their part in facilitating the operation in collaboration with the surgeons and technicians.

“I am looking forward to have some young doctors who leave the faculty to join us so that we can encourage our plan to cooperate between the Hanover University and the Ministry of Health, or at least the Orotta Hospital, on that level,” promised Dr. Lobbes in regards to the education of doctors and nurses, and the exchange of knowledge in general.

When it comes to the patients, he said, it is the team’s pleasure to have these long suffered young patients operated and most importantly interesting to see them continue with their life and support their families after they are operated with the positive result. Thus far, all the patients operated in the years before have all done well and started to earn living, thus make the work encouraging.

“The thing is that obvious. Our equipment is not in the same abundance as back home. Of course, we could bring what we needed and what we thought is enough, so we have to stay in those means,” said Dr. Lobber concerning the shortcomings and setbacks that could occur during operations. “What we have seen in our experience is that some minor bleeding post operatively. And the case over the years had to be revised shortly after the first operation with no problem for the patient in the end.”

One main problem with the minor bleeding of the patients in Eritrea seems to have a different kind of blood coagulation, probably due to altitude, than the population the doctors usually treat in their home country which as a result the doctors have to take extra care in coagulating and having a very dry operation field with the demand of longer time. In doing so, the patients get plasma products and some of them get blood from the blood transfusion center with a very great cooperation and with the exactly needed amount, according to the surgeons.

Besides, the doctors admitted to the over all developments being registered in the health sector in general and the cardiology department in particular of the country. They appreciated the local doctors in all their profession, especially the way they diagnose these special diseases they treat.

When the medical team first arrives for operation, they are provided with the list of patients that the local doctors think likely to have operation. “Over the years, the amount of what we think is necessary to operating and what they think is necessary to get closer; needless to say, they are really incredible in the post operative care and follow ups too,” Dr. Lobbes values the local doctors. “We have a different approach. We come form the operative side, and they, from the diagnostic and internal side. So treating a disease is by all means giving examination however some conditions can not be treated medically, so you have to have a surgeon. So I find that it is good experience to visit Eritrea on this case,” he recapped.

Although cardiac surgery is a very serious and thorough job that needs at least seven staff at a time, Dr. Zeremaria said that the team’s impression is always positive and they are vey keen to have their input in the development of Eritrean health sector so as the country to be able to graduate specialists and to try to solve problems that surely exist and have a healthy society. On the other hand they are always willing to encourage other doctors and specialists from other parts of the world to share their knowledge and try to help and give away their knowledge because they find the Eritrean people willing to learn here a lot and they are very eager to have their own ideas and then do the best of both.

“As I am part of the Eritrean society, I follow not only their initiative but also their psychological stand, how they are satisfied with the results and the cooperation they get from the hospital staff and the patients themselves every minute,” he emphasized.

“The operation is carried out very smoothly; and the main objective of our mission is to extend the maxim of the self-reliance of Eritreans through mutual cooperation between Germany and Eritrea. Unlike our prior experience that we were only from the Hanover University now we have correlated another university, the University of Wuerzburg,” he underscored.

What the Orotta staff mentioned last is that “there is no better thing than treating patients in their homeland communicating with their mother tongue, among their own staff and people.”

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