Press releases
Milan, 5th February 2007
A new Humanitarian Mission for Prof. Campanelli: Ghana, Takoradi Hospital, a new Center for the Abdominal Wall Surgery.
With the help of the British High Commission in Ghana, the CNR (Canadian Oil Company), Plymouth Hospital, The Rotary International and the European Hernia Society, a Takoradi Hospital wing that was completely abandoned, has been restored in order to create a small operative center.
Giampiero Campanelli, Full Professor of Surgery at Insubria University in Varese and Secretary General of the European Hernia Society, took part in this wonderful initiative, both in the organizational phase and in the operative one.
During the week from January 27 to February 3, Prof. Campanelli with the help of his assistant Dr. Marta Cavalli, performed 31 surgeries for abdominal wall hernia-repairs and other urological surgeries in the groin-genital region.
He was able to adapt to the different surgical needs and perform all the procedures under not so easy conditions: often the electricity went out leaving the operating room without direct light making the use of electric instruments impossible.
Not to mention the medical instruments available: skimpy, not always appropriate and often worn out but good enough for a surgeon.
Even though he brought from Milano a suitcase full of medical stuff like meshes, suture wires, medicines, bandaids, syringes, rubber gloves, masks and scalpels, he was always forced to use very little material in order to save some for the next procedure.
But all this didn't stop them from doing a good job anyway.
Most of the surgeries were performed under local anaesthesia: this type of anaesthesia requires a cooperative patient and also the help of nurses who can explain to the patient what is happening is essential.
But once again Professor Campanelli's initiative made all this possible: he tried to overcome the language obstacle even learning a few words in the local dialect making the patients laugh for his funny accent.
This week of hard work was possible thanks to the participation of Dr. Boateng-Duah and Engineer Brian Dixon.
Dr. Duah (Takoradi Hospital Administrator) has selected all the patients (they were enrolled thanks to a tv ad which brought in 500 patients) and helped with the realization of the surgeries.
Engineer Dixon, responsible of the local oil company, helped by giving an outstanding logistic support including excellent Italian coffee machine!
Throughout the whole week all the people involved in the organization and the realization of the Hernia Center work committed themselves to ensure, together with the medical staff, an atmosphere of humanity and to establish a close relationship with the patient which is very hard to find.
A week of hard work but also full of personal satisfactions and emotions which, after going back to Italy, turned into the inevitable so called "Mal d'Africa", deep feelings that will be lighten up again with the next humanitarian mission.