Posted on Thursday 17 January 2008
Dr. Scott E. Eder Provides Care in West Africa
December 1, 2007
Scott E. Eder, MD, FACOG, Board Certified OB/GYN, a Princeton HealthCare System Attending Physician, traveled to Niger, West Africa, for a second time in early October with Kathy Raney, RN, MBA, Nurse Manager, Operating Room, Princeton HealthCare System, as part of a mission for the International Organization for Women and Development. This organization is completely voluntary - no one receives a salary. Everyone traveling to Africa must pay all of their own expenses, from airfare to food.
The mission of the organization is to correct obstetrical fistula and to help prevent obstetrical fistulas. The International Organization for Women and Development does four missions a year, sending over surgeons, gynecologists, uro-gynecologists, surgeons, colo-rectal surgeons and urologists, midwives and nurses.
The team, which goes four times a year, consisted of 25 people — doctors, residents, medical students — doing the surgery. During their 10 days in Niger, the team performed a total of 60 fistula repairs at the national hospital in Niamey. “Nurses and doctors from all over the United States assembled in Niger to join as one team and work together for this wonderful cause,” says Raney. “We began as strangers and quickly became friends,” she adds.
“We worked at two hospitals in Niamey and found the conditions quite different from what we are accustomed to here in the United States,” says Raney. “We hope we made an impact on some of the patients’ lives. It was a privilege to take care of the West African women. The trip was a life-changing experience, and I returned home with many new friends and memories,” adds Raney.
In addition, Dr. Eder brought an obstetrical vacuum (donated by University Medical Center at Princeton) and taught residents at the maternity hospital how to use it. Three anesthesia monitors were also donated by UMCP. Dr. Eder also instructed the residents at the maternity hospital on neo-natal resuscitation and assisted on general surgeries, such as cyst removals and c-sections.
“The United Nations has ranked Niger as the poorest country in the world,” says Dr. Eder. “They have 25 obstetricians/gynecologists for over 11 million people (2005).
“Not only is the country very poor, it’s rural,” explains Dr. Eder. “There is an overwhelming problem of child brides, with a lot of young girls being married off by the age of 11 or 12,” he says. “These girls immediately become pregnant. Many times they develop a prolonged or obstructed labor with the baby’s head pressing against the bladder, which causes a fistula. Because they are in distant villages, they can’t get to the hospital in Niamey due to a lack of transportation,” he says. “These young women need permission from their family to leave the village, and with it comes a social stigma,” explains Dr. Eder. Once they get a fistula they are incontinent. The women are then ostracized by their entire family and the community wants nothing to do with them. Their husbands won’t go near them because they smell,” he says. “The UN is moving to try to educate and eliminate this major problem in Africa and Asia.”
Next year for his third trip, Dr. Eder plans to teach operative laparoscopic surgery. “Opening up a patient is very difficult because of poor post-op care. We can show them how to eliminate the need for surgeries by doing laparoscopies.”
For more information on this organization visit: www.nigerfistula.org
