War Atrocities

Dr Paul here - still in Brisbane.  It will be a fortnight until I arrive in Goma as part of the third team.   While Team 1, currently in DRCongo, has not yet posted on this blog, Dr Neil Wetzig has emailed me today to say that the International Criminal Court is transporting 12 patients from Northern Congo for plastic surgery on my arrival.

The patients are from BUNIA near the northern Ugandan border of D.R.Congo - an area of rich mining and terrible war atrocities. People have suffered loss of lips, ears, nose, breasts, fingers, hands, genitals, cut off by machetes at the hands of soldiers - mostly the LRA. [Lord's Resistance Army]

Reconstruction of these patients usually takes multiple procedures over weeks and even months.  There are no plastic surgeons in DRCongo. Visiting for 3 weeks by the AusHEAL team means limitations on what can be done. Little is reported in the literature / media about these poor suffering people who have gone through unimaginable horrors. Some who will make the long journey to Goma will have to return without surgery.  Many will only be able to have a small amount done. Our team needs wisdom and empathy in dealing with patients and staff. 

Below is a before and after photo of a woman who has had her lips cut off and then reconstructed in Uganda. Another photo below shows people without lips and fingers in Congo awaiting surgery.