In 1994, nearly one million people were slaughtered over the span of about 100 days in Rwanda while those who could make a difference looked away. Of those lucky enough to survive the genocide, many were left permanently maimed with the scars of machete attacks. And now, more than 14 years later, two Westmount plastic surgeons are preparing to use their skills to help mend some of those old wounds.
Dr. Bruno Mastropasqua and Dr. Johanne Pelletier of Montreal’s Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, are travelling to Kigali, Rwanda in February with Mobilisation Enfants du Monde, an organization that works with Canadian hospitals to help the victims of maltreatment, both physical and psychological, in war-torn African countries.
Mastropasqua first heard of Mobilisation Enfants du Monde from his friend and colleague Pelletier, and it seemed like the right fit.
“I got a call if I’d be interested,” said Mastropasqua, immediately saying yes after consulting with someone very close to him first. “I just checked with my wife.”
The project began after Pelletier was contacted by Monique Mujawamariya, the founder of Mobilisation Enfants du Monde.
“Asked if I’d be willing,” said Pelletier, who in May travelled to Kigali for a week to begin planning the project.
In February, both doctors will join a team of surgeons, nurses and technicians to work on about 200 cases during the two weeks they are away, a workload that will be much higher than they are used to at home.
“We are trying to do three patients at a time,” said Pelletier, adding that they will receive little notice of the severity of the injuries they will come across.
Working outside of the comforts of a hospital with a large workload will take some getting accustomed to for Mastropasqua, but it’s something he’s looking forward to.
“In a normal day in Montreal, you don’t operate five days a week,” he said with a chuckle. “The usual work in Montreal you might operate one day, one day and a half,” in a given week he said.
“And depending on the complexity of the case do anything from one case to 10 cases in your week.”
For the medical team, travelling to Rwanda to apply their skills and help people live better lives is the motivation behind their decision to go. They will be working to repair some of the physical scars caused by machete attacks during the conflict, including facial injuries.
“We can’t repair anything anymore,” said Mastropasqua. “We’re more than 10 years after the genocide, so it’s really to conduct reconstructive surgery.”
The team will be receiving pictures of the patients in advance so they can meet and prepare for some of the surgeries. Although planning their strategy will be important, the real planning will involve what equipment they will need to take and specifically, how much. Every piece of medical equipment and supplies will be taken with them on the plane, leaving little room for personal items.
“Apparently we travel as simple passengers which means we get two [pieces of luggage] of 25 kilos per passenger, and within that baggage allowance we pretty well have to bring all of our medical stuff,” he said.
The anaesthesia machines were shipped well in advance because of their large size and won’t arrive until after the New Year, but everything else is up to them, which they will all have to carefully pack. The medical team will supply all of their own equipment, including sutures, and leave most of it with local medical staff after the trip is completed.
“We’re supposed to do some presentations at the university hospital to discuss some of the techniques,” he said, adding that people will require a lot of care after the surgeries in order to gain back the strength in their repaired limbs, which is why a hand therapist is joining them on the trip.
Mastropasqua, who has practiced medicine since 1990, said he always wanted to work in medicine and plastic surgery greatly appealed to him because it offered a vast variety of areas he could work in. And now he has the opportunity to put his experience to the test in order to improve lives.
“I just think it’s something very rewarding from a human point of view and an experience point of view for the surgeon, and hopefully it will do a lot of good for the patients,” he said. “This I think will simply be a chance to get back to the basis of what medicine or surgery is all about which is in the end helping people.”
