A total of 35 teenagers and young adults facing urinary incontinence on Saturday received free surgery, courtesy of a group of five doctors from Saudi Arabia working under a team known as Physicians Across Continents (PAC), in partnership with Good Windows (NGO).
About $13m was set aside for the week-long programme expected to be extended to other hospitals across the country.
Urinary incontinence is the inability to hold urine in the bladder because voluntary control over the urinary sphincter is either lost or weakened.
Emmanuel Nkusi, one of the patients, said he contracted the disease ten years ago. He commended the volunteer doctors for the free treatment.
Dr Theobald Hategekimana, the director-general of CHUK, said the doctors had helped treat a number of patients who had for long waited for treatment.
Hategekimana said the visiting team, made up of specialists in children, women and brain diseases, will be in the country until Friday, April 18.
The head of the delegation, Dr Saad Algami, said their visit was in line with the Ministry of Health’s goal to fill the existing surgeons’ gap.
Dr Mohammad Hussein, one of the surgeons, said their aim is to support patients who cannot afford hospital bills and also transfer knowledge to Rwandan medics.
The medics also donated assorted medicine, worth $120, 000 to the hospital.
The Physicians Across the Continent (PAC) was founded in 2003 in Saudi Arabia and has offices in England, Nigeria, Sudan and Somalia, among other countries.
The New Times
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