 Surgery
The Children's Project organises orthopaedic surgical camps and plastic surgery camps at Kisiizi Hospital, in which up to 30 children at a time are treated for a range of conditions including cleft palates, burns contractures, malaligned fractures, talipes (club foot),and osteomyelitis.
The Project workers organise the surgical camps and have International surgeons, who perform all the operations in 5 days. The Project are then responsible for the children's rehabilitation at Kisiizi Hospital, which could be as little as 2 weeks for some burns cases or up to 3 months anything involving bones.
Six camps have been possible in past years but reduced funds means we don't know how many we can fund this year.
For cases which cannot be treated at surgical camps, children taken by the project (with a parent/guardian) to hospitals in Mbarara (2hrs), Kampala (7hrs) or Mbale (10hrs+). These cases include: tumours, cancer, hydrocephalus, heart problems, spine deformities, ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat), renal, etc. In these cases, the biggest help is actually transporting the children in our Ambulance (up to 10 children with parents at a time) and translating between the parent and doctor (in South West Uganda they speak a different language to those in Central and Eastern parts). But we also often need to pay for consultation fees, x-rays, blood tests, drugs, operations and rehabilitation (until the child can be moved to our ward at Kisiizi hospital). Remember there is no NHS in Uganda and the families can only just afford to get the transport to our Project office, or to support the family during parent's absence from the field, let alone paying for operations.
The Project needs money for:
- surgical camps: food, bedding, basins, firewood, salary of cooks and matron, splints, medicine, dressings, soap, transport
- surgery at other hospitals: fuel, ambulance repairs, consultation fees, x-rays, CT scans, ultrasounds, blood tests, drugs, operations
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