Africa Surgery 2019 Summer Newsletter Part 5
from Tom Johnson, Jr., President and Founder
Kadiatu Kamara, 6, fractured her tibia bone in a fall. The bone got infected, causing horrible pain. Kadiatu had to be carried on her mother’s back.
On February 5, 2019 we took Kadiatu to one of the medical teams from the German-based organization Orthopedie-Für-die-Welte (O-D-W), at the time visiting St. John of God Hospital in Lunsar. The surgeon, Dr. Artur Klaiber, first had to operate to clean out the infected bone and then install an external fixator (a device that would hold the two ends of the bone in place). This device would also extend and stick out of her leg, to allow for small adjustments to be made to the positions of the bones.
Two-months later, Kadiatu had a second surgery. She was out of pain and able to walk on her own with crutches, and with the external fixator still attached. After another month the bone had healed completely and the fixator was removed. Kadiatu is now able to walk without crutches and she and her mother have returned to their home in Freetown. Kadiatu is just one of the 34 patients with fractured and/or infected bones whom Africa Surgery has treated with the help of the O-D-W teams.