News from Lacor Hospital - Fondazione Corti

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working with us at Lacor for nine years and has been Deputy Medical Director for the last two years) is, for all of us, the best guarantee for the future: we do not hesitate to define him as “an outstanding doctor and person”. Even the Comboni missionaries expressed themselves positively when we discussed these issues with them, and we are hopeful that the support they have constantly given to Lacor Hospital will continue unswervingly in the future. Dr. Matthew Lukwiya, Medical Director of Lacor, not only proved to be an extraordinary doctor and person, he also spearheaded the fight for the containment of the terrible Ebola haemorrhagic fever in 2000 (a lethal outbreak that spread in north Uganda and that he had personally identified). He set up an isolation ward and led one hundred members of the Hospital’s staff who volunteered to risk their lives daily in caring for the sick in the isolation ward and to bury the dead. He, along with 12 other of Lacor’s staff died after having contracted the disease while fulfilling their duty, thereby giving proof of exceptional heroism and dedication. We would like to conclude with some considerations made by my brother, Rev. Corrado, a Jesuit missionary priest in Chad. In a letter to us last December after a visit to Gulu he writes: "It is good to realize how much work has been done and continues to be done. Every year, at Lacor, thousands of people find a place where they can look to their future with a little hope. Even the ones who will not recover their health, will have found that, in this world, there are people who care about them and their terrible problems, and who can help solve them in some measure. How many have been to Lacor and have drawn a benefit from it... the amount of work that has been done is considerable. But so too is the work laid out for the future, thanks to the structures that have been realized and the human resources that have been involved, trained, motivated and sustained in one complex and huge project. For all those who live close and even far away, Lacor Hospital is a reference point allowing them to look at their own condition with some hope and not only darkness. There is another aspect that gives importance to this 46 As Piero had correctly foreseen, the improvement of economic and social conditions in the country since the ’90s determined an increase in costs, with a harder impact in the north where war was still raging and preventing any kind of development. The Italian Foundation, recognized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1995, has grown to be the major supporter of the Hospital particularly during the period in which most emergency humanitarian organizations abruptly withdrew their help following the end of the conflict in the north in 2007. Moreover, the decrease in bank interest rates had made it impossible to accumulate enough capital to ensure covering the Hospital’s running costs with the interest. For the last two years, the Italian Foundation has sent all the funds collected during each year and has had to draw on the emergency funds that were set aside in the past thanks to specific donations for this purpose. In addition to raising funds and obtaining the necessary equipments, the Foundations have an important role in seeking those competences that are needed in order to manage a complex system such as the Hospital, when they cannot be found locally. In previous editions of this newsletter, that you can consult at www.teasdalecorti.org /newsletter, we highlighted several such projects as the reorganisation of the pharmacy, human resources, IT and management, launched at the request of the Hospital Management, along with the shipment of medication thanks to the Canadian Foundation. complex reality that is St. Mary's Hospital Lacor. It is a social reality, it is an organisation that functions and is officially recognised. Outside Lacor, everything seems to be nonexistent, corrupted or not functioning well. In such a scenario, a complex like Lacor Hospital is a symbol of hope, a positive factor that can stimulate recovery and restructuring just by being there." (The “reproducible model” is a fixed idea of ours’ for the past 30 years – Piero & Lucille). "Finally, Lacor allows us to perceive a certain role of the church, and of what it should be its essence… it is difficult to judge who is and who is not perfect... But where there is a small light, let us care for it and give that light space so that it can shine brighter." Piero and Lucille
Sherbrooke’s Faculty of Medicine at Lacor I already visited St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor in 2007. Together with my spouse, we were sent to evaluate the hospital for a Quebec charitable foundation. It was a special visit, because we were going to Lucille Teasdale’s hospital and Lucille is my hero and role model. As we were familiar with health care in Africa, we were able to take a critical and unbiased look. We were impressed by the quality of the care provided and the efficiency of the organization. “One day I'll definitely come back,” I told myself. I am a physician and professor at the Department of family medicine at Université de Sherbrooke, and a co-director of an international health internship program and a training program for health professionals in Mali. As we could not send interns to Mali this year because of the political, social and military situation in the West African country, we turned to St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor in Northern Uganda instead. Our team consisted of a resident physician Roxanne Gagné, a graduate nurse Marilyn Prévost, an experienced family physician Dominique Mercier and me, François Couturier, as the internship supervisor. We stayed for four weeks, from November 18 to December 15, 2012. We first stayed at the hospital for about ten days to get to know the people and become familiar with the resources, diseases and history of the country, the region and the Hospital. Here are a few excerpts from our collective diary: pI was also impressed by the size of the hospital, which includes more or less 425 beds, 6 operating rooms, recovery room, severe burns unit, specialized outpatient clinics: pediatrics, HIV, oncology, physiotherapy room, as well as pathology, microbiology, hematology and biochemistry laboratories. p Both of them are in their mid-twenties and she is newly pregnant. They have just learnt that they are both HIV-positive. New information, discussions, the start of a triple therapy for her, in order to achieve undetectable viral load to protect the baby. They are calm and dignified and even under such shock, they look like they are in love. Then we travelled to the peripheral health centre in Pabbo, an hour drive from the Hospital. There we could really offer the best of ourselves as a nurse and family physicians. We were welcomed by the clinician Benedict Otii, midwives Rose and Gloria, Sister Joyce, a nurse, nursing aides and two lab assistants. We lived on site and shared the basic living conditions and the heavy workload, took care of adults and children, and delivered babies. p I’m still entrenched in the Quebec health care mentality. At times, I very much doubt my skills. The diseases and the medication available are only understood to a certain point and this makes it difficult for us to adapt. I think we would all like to become efficient more quickly. We tend to forget that it takes weeks, or even moths, to become at ease in a new environment, be it here or back home. We are not here to change the world, but to try to build a lasting partnership and share our knowledge. p Today is my birthday. After lunch, my colleagues surprised me with a present packed in a box of crackers. Dominique Corti went out of her way and managed to order a nurse’s cap after getting the Lacor head nurse’s permission. I’m all pretty with the lace cap on my head. p The patients are afraid of the doctor and seem to fear the imminent violence that physical contact represents. They look completely destitute. I strongly suspect that they suffer from collective post-traumatic stress disorder. Twenty-six years of terror and atrocities committed on the most vulnerable parts of the civilian population inevitably leave some marks. p It’s the end of a wonderful adventure. Pabbo was an amazing place for an internship. p Whether it was the fatigue or the nostalgia, nobody spoke during our return journey. I was watching the landscape out of the window, perhaps for the last time. p It will definitely take some time to fully realize the impact of what I’ve learnt; as I have no doubt that this experience will make a difference, even for practising at home. We would like to thank all those who welcomed us so warmly, both at the hospital and at the centre in Pabbo. Links have been forged and our world has expanded. François Couturier Left to right: Benedict Otii, Marilyn Prévost, Dominique Mercier, François Couturier, midwife Rose, Roxane Gagné. 7
Page 1 and 2: Issue dedicated to Piero and Lucill
Page 3 and 4: ary. This was a big step forward, n
Page 5: Left: 1993, from left to right, Dr.

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