Medical care for 400 children in Equatorial Guinea

SOS Children's Villages of Spain, carries out a Program of Medical Care for Equatoguinean Children in Social Exclusion, which is being carried out, in collaboration with the professionals of the Hospitals of Madrid: Maternal and Child of Gregorio Marañón and Infantil Niño Jesús.

Likewise, it considers it appropriate to bear witness to the silent tragedy experienced by the most disadvantaged population, especially boys and girls, and the need for these medical teams that come from Spain to continue their work with all the necessary support.

The project consists of two phases every year. Last year the goal of serving more than 400 children was achieved. Due to the quarantine, we have suspended the trips scheduled for May, to avoid infecting the little ones with the virus, however many of them are waiting for us to attend to all the pathologies they present.

The first medical mission is already back and was composed of 2 nurses, 4 pediatric surgeons and 2 anesthetists. The itinerary of this medical mission began the same day they arrived in the African continent. The convocation is still very high and that is still done through radio notices indicating the date of arrival of our expedition. Both the day of the consultation and the first day of the operating room, local televisions come to interview the Spanish doctors who are part of the team and this creates another effect called on people who have not heard the radio messages, which It creates a continuous flow of patients to be evaluated every day, which implies that doctors have to divide their work to operate and make consultations.

During this visit, 250 children were treated and 72 patients with 88 medical conditions were operated. The youngest child was 2 months old and 18 were under 2 years old. The most frequent pathology has been inguinal hernia due to its possibility of strangulation and death due to the sanitary conditions that exist in Africa, a situation that would be unthinkable in a European country. We have operated 12 cryptorchidies (testicles outside the scrotum, even some inside the abdomen), sutured a wound by a white chest weapon that went to the operating room knowing of our stay and performed a two-field surgery that consisted of a skin-free graft for the straightening of the index finger, which we removed from the inguinal area, taking advantage of the operation of inguinal hernias. The traumatology operated patients were 8 in total, not counting the more than 15 orthopedic treatments with plaster and boots that the traumatologist in charge of medical consultations performed. The interventions have passed without complications, except for one patient who we had to reoperate the next day due to a large hematoma. The doctor who has been in charge has informed us of the reviews of the operated children without any infections or recurrences.