From May 19-23, 2025, I traveled to Kigali, Rwanda to provide clinical care to patients at King Faisal Hospital.
Rwanda currently has one vascular surgeon serving the entire country and he just finished his training in January. He is an excellent surgeon, serving a city of 1.7 million and a country of 14 million. There will be another vascular surgeon joining him in several months. My role there was to support him, and it turned out to be an amazing week. One memorable case was operating on a patient with a large carotid body tumor. This type of tumor is common in Rwanda but rare in the United States.
While I was at the hospital, I met one of the UW Emergency Medicine Residents, Dr. Sam Wing, who was also volunteering there. Sam told me that there were about six other people from UW–Madison in Kigali and that they were all going out to dinner that night, so I tagged along. There was one medical student, Sam’s wife, an ID attending who is there doing research, and another attending who does a great deal of global health research and support.
Rwanda is a beautiful country, rising above its recent history. I’m looking forward to going back.
Dr. Victor Weiss is a Professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery.