Surgeon, where art thou!

I came across this very sensitive posting entitled "Advocating for better healthcare in Cameroon" at the following web address:
http://olivemedicalfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/advocating-for-better-healthcare-in-cameroon/#comment-2

"Dear friends, how many of you have been victim of medical malpractice? Had a complication because of negligence or an unqualified “docta” tried to do surgery on you? Yesterday, I met a patient who had surgery for appendicities from one of our district hospitals. Unfortunately for him, his bowel was injured and he began leaking stool. He was refered to another hospital in shock and died two days after. This is not the first lethal complication caused by this Doctor. The authority pretends to be ignorant. Many people are victim of such malpractice in Cameroon. No body mentions them and no measures are taken by the government to stop such practices. This could happen to anyone. Everybody is a Doctor in Cameroon. Have you been a victim or know someone who has been, its time to speak out. It is time we become responsible for our health and Healthcare sysyem ..."



Dear friends, sympathizers, readers,
This is unacceptable. The American healthcare system has it's faults, flaws and humps but this is exactly what I appreciate about the American healthcare system: The doctor is totally accountable and responsible for every act that he/she does and as such most doctors are quite diligent with their patients and what they do.

Unfortunately scenarios like the one reported above has become very rampant in the Cameroon society. Just a couple of yrs ago, my cousin was "killed" by a doctor. He went in for an ELECTIVE chest wall cyst excision never to walk out of the hospital. He died during surgery. NO ONE till today including the so called doctor ever gave any reasonable explanation as to what happened during surgery that killed this teenage boy. It is ridiculous! Again, this begs for the need of more surgeons in Cameroon since now, any doctor basically gets up one morning and wears a surgeon's hat then go on butchering people. If you're to operate, be ready to deal with the complications, and that's what the rigorous training of a surgeon prepares one for. If you operate enough, you'll come to have a complication but face it head on! don't try to push it by the side and pray that it goes away because guess what? It'll go away alright but this, at the cost of the patient's life hence, in my book, equivalent to murdering a patient. If you took the hippocratic oath and swore to "do no harm" then leave the scalpels to those who would use it for saving patients lives, don't turn it into a killing weapon please.
Do not get me wrong; there're situations where the doctor or surgeon does everything possible to save a patient but all efforts fail and THAT, is understandable. What I cannot stand is a doctor acting irresponsible or not shouldering their responsibility as the one who operated on my cousin or the victim in the above scenario. Also, having thesame complication from a procedure over and over should RING A BELL that you better quit doing that procedure all together till you get more training, find our why you keep having same complication. What you CANNOT DO is maintain the status quo and keep on doing thesame thing, NO way!

Thanks for reading and your thoughts are welcomed.

...a Case FOR SURGERY

It is nice to know that God continues to give his people strenght, the will, courage and capability to help others. Each and everyone of us has a passion. In that passion, lies your purpose in life. Yes, it is also my believe that each and everyone of us has a purpose in life which we execute in various ways and forms. For some, their purpose in life will be executed within a matter of seconds, sometimes unbenknownst to them. Some people dig deeper, seek more and expand their purpose in life, however still within thesame context for which they were meant for.

This brings me to this article (please copy and pase in your browser and read).
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/april/toughcalling.html

It is role models like these that continue to stir up the zest in me, of becoming a surgeon, then going to "ground zero" and carrying out, what I believe is, my purpose in life. Yes, it might be over ambitious to think that all of a sudden, I will eliminate the long lines of patients waiting for a doctor to attend to their surgical needs. Many a time, these patients are just waiting hoping that someone will get to them, and that when they do, there will be something that they can do to cure their illness/surgical issue. The fact is that most doctors in Cameroon and other developing nations that do take care of the surgical burden of patients are not trained as surgeons, they just learn by observing cases during medical school and maybe doing a couple. What that means is that their scope of surgical practice is quite limited and they can only effectively handle a limited amount of surgical disease burden. So you have very few doctors to begin with for an extraordinarily large population with no dedicated surgeon amongst them. Besides the fact that surgery gets my adrenaline pumping, that I like working with my hands, and I know surgery is my calling despite adversaries, it also happens to be the one specialty training that is in limited supply in the developing world and would benefit and save countless number of patients.
When done with training, I want to serve surgical patients and I want them to know that while they're waiting in line, there is someone who really does care about them, who is adequately trained and will do all within reason, within my capacity to help them. I say this because I was once in that position, and I know how it feels to be a child, in severe agony and pain, sitting outside a doctor's office with my parents, and thinking that no one cares about me, and that why is no one coming out here to help me. I will make sure that medical students or other doctors work along side with me, and in that way I'm training them too so that they can inturn use those skills to help patients.

This writing is ofcourse dedicated to Dr Mwenyemali and Dr. Sanoussi and the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons who are leading the way to train surgeons in Cameroon. This is a great implementation of the popular adage: it is better to teach a hungry man to fish than to give him a fish.

Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts.

INSPIRING- African illiterate turned "surgeon"

It has been a while, been busy with residency. I stumbled on this article and immediately knew that it deserves a spot on my blog. This is quite an interesting piece on how an African illiterate woman became an expert in gynecological fistula repairs. Her story is inspiring and again, another reason why I still strongly believe that I have the obligation to volunteer my time to helping those with neglected surgical diseases in Africa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/opinion/12kristof.html

Soon, friends and well wishers.

Football World Cup: Cameroon Vs Denmark

The Football Worrld Cup kicked off on 6/11/10 in South Africa. This is the first time that the football world cup is being organized and played on African soil. It is a big deal and I'm expecting some African pride. It is a one month football (soccer) fest ending on 7/11/10. I have been following various games closely, that is when I can. I am supporting Cameroon national team. Their first game against Japan on 6/14/10 was a dissapointment defeat for Cameroon (1 goal to 0). Their second match is scheduled for this afternoon at 2:30pm against Denmark. I'm hoping that Cameroon utilizes her players today in a good way and put forth their best play to emerge winners of today's game or else they'll be packing their bags to leave. On the other hand, I'm not expecting miracles from Cameroon especially if the coach, Paul Le Guen, doesn't make use of the good players in the squad. They could easily pack their bags and head home but as a fan of the Indomitable Lions, I'm holding tight to HOPES.

Good luck et allez les Lions!

On the other note, it seems like Ghana is the only African team that is holding its own. The Ghanian team won their first game (1 goal to 0) through a penalty kick. Their second game comes up in a couple of minutes against Australia. If they win, they become first in the group with 6 points.

Focus on the Greater things in life which matters

It has been my habit to surf the web, every once in a while, to read about events happening in the world. What I do different from most people that I know is that I do not limit myself to news websites. I make use of the WORLD WIDE web ... lol. So today I stumbled on this you tube video on Cameroon. The vidoe shows a journalist/ photographer journalist being beaten by a military man. Yes, 2 of them ganged up on him!!! Where else do you see such a thing happen besides somewhere like Cameroon. The old adage of pictures are worth a thousad words speaks for itself ... in this case video is worth a million words. Just watch the link for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfgZs4qmGd4&feature=player_embedded


I really am unable to describe my initial reactions but I know that I was filled with pity for the journalist, anger at the military men and the Cameroon system. I'm not sure why this guy was being beaten but lets even assume that this was a facility where video cameras are not allowed, wouldn't it be appropriate to stop this journalist in a civil manner. Is all this jungle mannerism called for???
and guess what? In the end, this military man will suffer no consequences, that's just what it is.

If you've been reading my previous posts, you must have noticed that I do have a strong interest in international health specifically, in doing missionary work, as my schedule permits, in Cameroon either during or when I'm done with my Surgery residency. Actions of those in charge of the law, those in the position to protect citizens and up hold the law are the very ones who abuse it. It's very easy to say well, I will never step foot in such a place. A place where people are above the law and there's, in actuality, no such thing as citizens rights. My emotional mental capacity wants to do that but my rational mental mind is kicking in.

So what I think is my take away from such a situation is that- stay back and do nothing and nothing changes. In fact, things might actually worsen. In this world, one must realize that: On the highway to your destination you will see many side streets and exits; some will look like short cuts to your destination, others will lead to very appealing places which you can see from the highway. Keep on going and stay focused on your destination because you're not just exploring, you know where you're going.

If one doesn't look past the smaller things in life, one will never set forth to do the greater things that matters.

They say, the smaller things in life matters. Well, your plan in life, what is dear to your heart matters most. Let the smaller things in life serve as small breaks on that highway journey but remember that what matters most is you completing that journey despite the smaller things in life.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.

Check out this you tube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfgZs4qmGd4&feature=player_embedded

Graduation picture published in Newspaper

Each day, certain things occur in our lives that brings us happiness or joy. These things usually serve as a counteraction to some of the not so happy moments in our days due to one reason or the other. I believe that as humans, the ability to find a balance between the happy and unhappy things each day adds joy to our lives. Also that if the happy things overwhelmingly exceed the unhappy ones, we're left with a smile either on our faces on in our minds (depending on your personality) at the end of the day.

Well one of such happy things that occured to me today was finding out that my graduation picture was publised in the Afro-American Newspaper.
What is very exciting about this is that I took this picture with some very special people: My mom and dad. Also on the picture are Bernard and Christine who gave their all on that day in helping to make things happen.

Here's a link to the paper containing the above mentioned picture:
http://www.scribd. com/doc/32421344 /Baltimore- Afro-American- Newspaper- June-05-2010

Family is great
A great family is love, peace and happiness
A loving family is home
Home is where the heart is
Your heart is always where those who love you most and dearly are
Above all, God is love!!!

Looking forward happy things in days, weeks, months, years to come; heck looking forward to happiness in the future and sharing this happiness. For sharing is joy.

Intern year

So on 6/15/10, General Surgery interns at the University of Maryland Medical Center started at their new posts with orientation. We'll be having orientation throughout this week. I've met some really pleasant people and looking forward to working with them!

My dad safely arrived back home, in Cameroon, yesterday after his visit here which was mainly to take part in my Graduation. So blessed to have my parents by my side on graduation day and that'll be forever engraved in my memory. Much thanks to God for the wonderful time spent with dady and his safe arrival back home!!

I also came across this quote at a barber's shop yesterday and found it quite interesting. This was a mischievous man in his 40's who recently bacame a christian, talking to his friends:
- I just found out that God put each and everyone of us on earth to accomplish something or to do something for another person in one way or the other before they die. However, I haven't accomplished anything nor really do anything to help anyone. Oh my ... I will never die. -