Care and surgery
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Emergencies and humanitarian crises
Maternal health
At the heart of a surgical mission in Togo
La Chaîne de l'Espoir operated on 124 children in Blitta, 260 km north of the Togolese capital. Here's the story of a week's itinerant mission to help the children furthest from medical care.
Sitting at the bedside of his daughter with Blount’s disease, N’Baota B.’s head is immersed in a care booklet. This growth anomaly had progressively arched her child’s legs. “This is a great day for me, because she has suffered from this disease since birth. We couldn’t afford to have her operated on. She had trouble walking. At home, we had to assist her with certain things. The situation even forced us to postpone her school enrolment”, says the 45-year-old farmer.
On Monday, his 11-year-old daughter Céline became the first child to undergo surgery at the Centre Hospitalier Préfectoral de Blitta, as part of La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s 13th pediatric surgical mission to Togo. Blitta is located 260 km north of the capital, Lomé.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the turnout. We had anticipated by making all the arrangements for the smooth running of the mission. A number of rooms have been fitted out for the occasion”.
Dr Koumahada Tatoa, hospital director.
182 operations in 5 days
The day before, 242 destitute children -accompanied by their parents- aged 0 to 15 were seen in consultation.
A long queue formed. Two stations were set up for registering young patients and taking vitals (weight, temperature, height, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.), and four hospital cubicles were set up for surgical and anaesthetic consultations. Nurses guided families and helped children with mobility difficulties.
“The need is enormous. Thanks to this mission, many children will regain their health. Sustainable development is first and foremost about human health.
Yao Bassambadi Dazimwaï, mayor of the commune.
Immense needs
Standing in the middle of the crowd, Boko E. holds his son, Médard. The two-year-old has a cleft lip and palate, also known as a harelip. The head mason has just arrived from Pagala, a village some 20 km from the hospital: “My child was born with this malformation. It pains me to see him in this situation. In our village, some people make fun of me. I will organize a party at home, if he is operated on successfully”.
At the entrance to one of the consultation rooms, 4-year-old Christophe waits patiently. “He’s been suffering from a hernia since birth. Sometimes he feels a lot of pain. He can’t walk and has difficulty eating,” explains his father Sèmèkonawo A.
“The whole team is highly motivated to give their best”.
says volunteer anesthetist Dr Elsa Marot. This is her fourth mission with La Chaîne de L’Espoir.
Children saved, parents relieved
Of the 242 children seen, 124 benefited from one or more surgical procedures carried out by a medical team from Lomé, supported by an anaesthetist and a nurse from La Chaîne de l’Espoir who arrived from France.
Hernias, cysts, axial knee deviations, etc.: some young patients were severely handicapped by these pathologies. Some young patients were severely handicapped by these pathologies, which had progressed through lack of care. They will now be able to return to a normal life.
Twelve-year-old Jacqueline underwent two operations. She underwent surgery for an umbilical hernia and a left inguinal (groin) hernia. “The hernias were present from birth and caused her a lot of pain. The pain was sometimes unbearable: she would cry and squirm,” says her mother, Assi B.
Bernard, an eleven-month-old baby whose left toes had been stuck together since birth and who suffered from an umbilical hernia, also had a double operation. “Sometimes, his navel would get bigger and he would cry all day long. I found it very hard to calm him down. I’m very relieved that he had the operation,” says his mother, Chabidou L., her face beaming with joy.
Close to children’s needs
These itinerant missions enable medical teams to travel around the country to provincial hospitals. The doctors operate directly on vulnerable children living in remote areas where treatment is difficult to obtain.
A small country of eight million inhabitants, Togo has just six pediatric surgeons, all based in Lomé. ” We have set up four operating tables to be able to treat as many children as possible,” explains Prof. Jean-Pierre Komla Gnassingbé, head of the pediatric surgery department at Lomé’s Centre Hospitalier et Universitaire Sylvanus Olympio and head of the mission’s medical team.
And tomorrow?
As a result of the mission, some 30 children seen in Blitta were operated on free of charge by the medical team at the CHU Sylvanus Olympio, thanks to the financial support of La Chaîne de l’Espoir. Their pathology required surgery in a hospital with a better-equipped technical platform, which is why they were treated in Lomé.
“These missions are essential, as they are the only way for destitute children living in provinces far from the Togolese capital to benefit from an operation”
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