German doctors conduct surgery operations on 42 patients

Five German doctors recently conducted successful surgery operations on 42 patients at the ASB German Clinic in Dippa Kunda, according to Beatrice Weigelt, ASB Clinic project manager.

"For almost five to six years now, in every February, German Reconstructive Surgeons do visit the country for a weeklong operation in the areas of celepalate in babies and adults," Ms Weigelt said at her ASB Clinic in Dippa Kunda.

The doctors are also operating in chumas contractions through burns very often and on kiloid, she said, adding that kiloid "is a very big problem in the black race and they get it very often".

According to her, after the operations, the doctors do come back to treat people since an injection is needed to be given to patients.

She says they do not charge their patients (adults) full price for the medical services but ask them to pay some amount of cash to contribute to the operational expenses.  

"The five doctors came to The Gambia on their own expenses while keeping their working time away," she said.

The children, she says, are operated free of charge while the adults do pay a reasonable amount of money for their surgery operations, because the operation "consumes a lot of materials".

"We are depending on donations from our mother organisation in Germany and other well-wishers," she said.

According to Ms Weigelt, they make announcement for registration of patients during the year, through newspaper advertisements that the German doctors are coming for their annual operations. "Our patients do register and ready before the arrival of the doctors from Germany," he noted.

The ASB project manager said further that they received an ambulance as a donation from a sister organization in Hamburg which has been of great service to them. "It is a fully equipped ambulance with oxygen which we use to transfer patients to Dakar and other hospitals in the country where patients want to go for treatment," she said.

The five doctors who came this year were Dr Lei Li, Professor Dr Erhardt Hoelzle, Dr Joachim Siegert, Dr Kleus Ehlich and Dr Nabiu Wagle.