 | home |
| News |
| Matron in Chief |
| Deployments |
| QARNNS Awards |
| Adventure Training and Sports |
| QARNNS Tennis |
| Recruitment |
| C P D |
| Downloads |
| Events Calendar |
| Reserves |
| QARNNS Trust Fund |
| Gallery |
| Research |
| History |
| Remembrance |
| Links |
A QARNNS Officer from Plymouth has spoken of the 'humbling' experience teaching Ghanaians how to perform lifesaving surgery.
Royal Navy Nursing Officer Lieutenant Craig Brown has been working to help set up a hernia centre in Ghana which aims to reduce the death-toll resulting from serious conditions going untreated.
Having just returned to the Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit at Derriford Hospital, where he is an operating theatre specialist, Lt Brown said: "It's very humbling seeing what the Ghanaians have to tolerate. They have so few resources and are so poorly equipped and funded.
"The team makes big differences by performing procedures that we take for granted in the UK, while also teaching the local nurses."
The Operation Hernia centre in Sekondi-Takoradi is a charity headed by Professor Andrew Kingsnorth, who also works at Derriford Hospital.
The Royal Navy and Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service Trust Fund have supported the work.
Five hernia missions have been completed since 2005, with the support of six Royal Navy nurses every year.
Such is the demand for surgery to repair long-term untreated hernias that in one five-day period aach year approximately 140 cases are treated in the hernia treatment centre in Takoradi.
Lt Brown, who is in charge of a hernia clinic wing operating theatre when he is in Ghana, said: "We're educating the Ghanaians in hernia surgery and they're learning our skills and operating theatre procedures.
"This is an important process, because whereas 100 per cent of hernias diagnosed will be treated by operation in the UK, less than 14 per cent will be treated by routine operation in Africa. In those that aren't treated, there is a high mortality rate.
"The Operation Hernia team, working with the Ghanaian doctors and nurses, is seeking to reduce this mortality rate in this region dramatically."
Fifteen surgeons and nurses from Derriford Hospital travelled to Ghana in November to continue the work led by Derriford consultant colorectal surgeon Chris Oppong and Prof Kingsnorth.
Lt Brown has served in Iraq, landing on the Al Faw Peninsula with 40 Commando Royal Marines during the 2003 war, and was based in Saddam Hussain's former palace on the outskirts of Basra.
In 2002 he served in Afghanistan, where the base was frequently rocketed by the Taliban while medical staff were treating US Marine casualties. In 2007 he again served in Afghanistan as part of Op Herrick 5 with UK Med Group in Camp Bastion, which is the main UK military base in Helmand Province.
| Site Map | | | Contact |