For many years, an experienced team of pediatric surgeons, pediatric orthopedists, and plastic surgeons, together with pediatric anesthetists and operating room staff, has been traveling to Iringa Province in Tanzania to treat children with congenital and acquired malformations of organs and limbs, as well as patients with severe burns and their consequences. Since February 2022, these missions have been carried out under the umbrella of ARCHEMED, and since 2023, the team has been working at the Tosamaganga Hospital.
Most people in Tanzania are so poor that they cannot afford the equivalent of three euros per day for a hospital stay! And so, the central admission is already full of people on the first official day of deployment. Some of them travel for over ten hours and more than 500 kilometers to have their children operated on free of charge by the German surgical team. In addition to general pediatric surgery and pediatric orthopedic care, burn surgery is a key focus of the project.
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In Tanzania, as in many African countries, people cook in or in front of their huts on open fires or with unstable and unsecured kerosene stoves. This is particularly dangerous for small children who unintentionally crawl onto or into these fire pits, often suffering severe burns (so-called “fire children”). The wounds are then inadequately treated, or often not treated at all. This results in large and sometimes disfiguring scars or scar contractures. The latter lead to joint stiffness, which later makes it difficult or even impossible to pursue gainful employment.
In complex, often multi-hour operations, these patients are treated and post-treated, if necessary with skin grafts; the youngest are only a few months old. In a two-week mission, an average of 160 children are examined, and nearly 40 of them are operated on. In addition, there are about 50 treatments requiring anesthesia, such as painful dressing changes.
Project Management
Dr. Naim Farhat, Pediatric Surgeon, Hamm
