Back for week two of the course, refreshed by a weekend off. A few of our international visitors enjoyed a trip round some of the sights of London – Herve from Benin was amazed to see how the British dress outside Buckingham Palace...
Monday was trauma and orthopaedics day and we had a star-studded cast of lecturers including CMF's very own Giles Cattermole in his other incarnation as a consultant in emergency medicine, the inimitable Ranti and Verona and the wonderful Chris Lavy (always good to make full use of friends and family!) The amazing statistic of the day for me was that 10% of all the deaths in the world are the result of trauma – more than malaria, HIV and TB combined. And of course in the developing world, emergency treatment is often inaccessible, ineffective or unavailable.
Orthopaedic surgeons have the wonderful priviledge of making the lame walk. But today we learned that non-orthopods can do that too. Chris told the story of the Malawi club foot training programme which trained local health workers to treat this common, disabling condition. In 2009, 81% of the country's 1,500 new cases were treated. So with coordinated effort and input around the world, it would not be impossible to treat the 150,000 new cases born each year and give every child a chance to walk. So much to do – and so much could be done – if people are prepared to step out and serve.
Vicky Lavy
Head of International Ministries
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