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It has to be every parent’s worst nightmare, for their child to be rushed to the hospital. But when 12 year-old Aaminah Abrahams complained of severe stomach pains, her parents knew there was only one place for their daughter to go – Cape Town’s Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital.
Aaminah needed emergency surgery to stop the bleeding in her ovary. Her doctor performed a “keyhole surgery” – a modern, minimally invasive technique that not only saved Aaminah’s ovary, but also reduced the amount of pain she felt. Within days after the procedure, Aaminah returned home to her family and friends, sore, but healed.
Minimally invasive procedures, like the “keyhole surgery” that saved Aaminah’s ovary, are the future of medicine. But a lack of training facilities on the continent has forced African specialists and surgeons to travel to Europe and the U.S. to receive training – Until now.
This September, the Children’s Hospital Trust, the fundraising branch of the Red Cross Hospital, will begin building Africa’s first Surgical Skills Training Centre. The R 10.5 million project will ensure that surgeons throughout the continent receive the most up-to-date training in global medical techniques.
Specialist paediatric surgeon Alp Numanoglu learned to perform complicated minimally invasive procedures in 2004 when he rushed a little boy in need of liver surgery to Belgium. Today, he says the new facility is essential because it is not always safe to train surgeons in a live setting.
“Ultimately the goal is to train safe surgeons. Endoscopic surgery requires different surgical skills. There is a very steep learning curve,” Numanoglu said.
“I have no doubt that [the centre] will soon become the center of excellence for many local and overseas trainees learning the advanced surgical techniques.”
The Red Cross War Memorial Hospital is the only specialist children’s hospital in southern Africa. It is considered South Africa’s leading centre for medical and surgical training. Built in 1956 in honor of fallen World War II veterans, the teaching hospital manages over 250,000 patient cases a year. The majority of the children treated in the hospital come from marginalized and disadvantaged communities.
The hospital’s operational costs are funded by the government, but the funding doesn’t cover the costs of essential building upgrades. That’s when the Children’s Hospital Trust comes to the rescue. The fundraising branch of the hospital has raised more than R 400 million to date and finances all building upgrades and skills facilities.
Sandi Sher, communications coordinator for the Trust, said the hospital ensures that the patients receive the best care possible, but because the hospital is so old, the facilities are sometimes inefficient. To Sher, upgrading the building is only half the battle. The Trust has to continually fundraise in order to finance future building projects.
“Obviously, to have the facilities we need to have the expertise to go along with it, so that more surgeries happen,” she said.
“[The centre] is really going to impact kids, this is going to be the future of surgery and more doctors need to be trained in it. It’s going to change things and benefit kids in a massive way.”
To learn more about how you can help the Children’s Hospital Trust, and to donate visit
//www.childrenshospitaltrust.org.za/page/the-childrens-hospital-trust