Dutch Hands Perform Miracles on Yemeni Faces [Archives:1999/14/Health]

Professor Dr. B.D. de Jong from Holland, is the coordinator of Interplus Holland, a known organization because they have been here for three times working twice a year in Al Thawra and Al Kuwait Hospitals. Professor Jong stated That: our aim is to treat children and young adults with burns, contraction burns, and other defects caused by accidents and dramatic cases. People come from far away sometimes from Mareb and Aden. Last time we were in Aden but this time we preferred to stay in Sanaa. We are here as two teams; each team consists of two plastic surgeons, one anesthetist and one theatre nurse. One team works in Al Thawra hospital while the other works in Al Kuwait, next week we will include as well Al Jumhoria Hospital because they are intending to build a Burns Center there and we are willing to participate in that organization in the primarily activities for primarily care, when you treat burns in a proper way there will be no invalidity later on. Now a day you see many cases, children and adults, they are invalid because they can not use their hands or close their eyes or mouths and many other kinds of invalidity. Unfortunately we have only 14 days, the teams are working voluntarily all days, even on holidays and they are glad to do it because its a rewarding matter, you can do a lot of work and get a reward, no money but moral one”.
Professor Jong added that their team will come in November, Two visits a year scheduled in April and November. There should be a continuity of work. Its a long way treating, they try to teach and train Yemeni doctors and nurses. Now they have physiotherapist in their team who will give instruction on physical therapy. Teaching a new operated person how to exercise. Bad physiotherapy lead to bad condition.
Theatre Nurse Greta Hesseling from Holland, has 26 years of experience and specialized in plastic surgery, teaching student about plastic surgery and everything that has to do with it and also special skills and attitude need s to work in theatre which is quite different from working on words, Nurse Hesseling said that: I ve been here once last year where I did a lot of looking and a little bit of teaching.
I want to try with one of the local people here to see what you need when you work on theatre. In Holland it is a three-year educated profession. I think, on a lower level here, we can do a lot of things to improve the performance on the theatre, also for nurses to make them part of a team, but you need schooling and as I understand that there is no special school for theatre nurses, this is what I would like to discuss whether you can do with several hospitals in the neighborhood to start a school for specialized theatre nurses and everything they have to know at work in a good way at a theatre.
Then we spoke to Mr.P. van DER AKKER, who is in charge of the logistic and translation for his ability in Arabic language. Mr. AKKER said that in 1997 he introduced Interplast to Yemen and since them he is working with the teams here.
Mr. DER AKKER said that: for this mission we have three specific targets. One target is the treatment of children by operation, the second target is the training of doctors and nurses and anesthetists and the third is to start training the staff required for the burn center at Al Jumhooria Hospital. These are the three targets set for this mission. But we have an agreement with the Ministry of Health and the Embassy of Holland here that we work here for 5 years starting from 1997. The arrangement is that doctors work for free, the air-ticket fees are paid by the Dutch Embassy and the lodging is paid by the hospitals in which we work.
Mr. DER AKKER concluded that the Interplast team has selected two nurses from the team here and they are trained now in Jordan. One is specifically able to work in the operation theatre while the second is specialized in anesthesia. They are now in Jordan for additional training; their training in Jordan is paid by a fund in Holland. We want to stress the importance of training nurses.
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