I finished my first month as faculty at the UW–Madison Department of Surgery by traveling to ALERT Comprehensive Specialized Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ALERT hospital partners with the Ministry of Health and University of Addis Ababa and is a referral center Trauma care with Orthopedic Surgery and Neurosurgery, Emergency and Critical Care, Plastic surgery, Dermatology, Eye Care, and Specialized Children’s Hospital. During the one week I was there, I provided clinical care to patients and education to the plastic surgeons, residents, and OR team.
The trip was sponsored by ReSurge International, an NGO whose mission is to establish and foster long term relationships with surgeons in low- and middle-income countries to teach valuable reconstructive plastic surgery skills so those surgeons may better serve their local communities. This was a surgical training team trip focused on microsurgery. The goal is to build sustainable reconstructive plastic surgery care at ALERT Hospital.
I traveled to ALERT Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with Drs. Shannon Colohan, a plastic surgery faculty and Shanique Martin, a PGY-5 plastic surgery resident from University of Washington, Dr. David Cholok, a chief plastic surgery resident from Stanford, Dr. Raju Poolacherla, an anesthesiologist at Western University Hospital in Ottawa, Canada and myself representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Kamlah Zughni, RN, an OR nurse that specializes in reconstructive microsurgery from University of Washington, also joined the team. The goal of the trip was to teach different breast reconstruction techniques including free flap breast reconstruction and other microsurgery free flaps for extremity reconstruction.
The week consisted of four days in the operating room with the plastic surgeons from ALERT hospital, one day of preoperative patient evaluations, daily rounds with the surgeons from ALERT and one to two hours per day of teaching lectures to the faculty, residents and OR nursing team. During this trip, we successfully completed the first free flap breast reconstruction at ALERT hospital, several breast reconstruction surgeries and one free flap reconstruction to a traumatic mangled lower extremity.
I had previously been to ALERT hospital, 18 months ago, to do a one-week microsurgery teaching course on reconstructive microsurgery with two other faculty plastic surgeons from the U.S. It was truly an honor and pleasure to operate with the plastic surgeons at ALERT hospital that I worked with 18 months prior during the teaching course. Everyone at ALERT hospital was so incredibly generous, warm, welcoming and eager to learn. A special thank you to the brave patients who trusted us with their care.
Dr. Suzanne Inchauste is an Association Professor in the Division of Plastic Surgery.