Kamogelo Olaitan
With high demand for surgeries and a lack of specialists in Limpopo, a team of surgeons in the province volunteered to operate on 67 babies to honour Madiba on International Nelson Mandela Day.
The surgeons, all hailing from different specialities, performed hernia repairs, cleft lip and palate repairs, tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies on children up to the age of 12.
They were joined by Gauteng-based Professor Mashudu Tshifularo, who is the first person in the world to transplant a 3D-printed bone into the middle ear of a patient with hearing loss.
Tshifularo, a paediatric surgeon, said for him it was an opportunity to serve and also to transfer skills and to give back to his home province.
Of the 67 cases, 45 surgeries were done at Mankweng Hospital just outside Polokwane and the rest were undertaken at rural hospitals in the province.
Speaking to the media, MEC Phophi Ramathuba said the initiative was taken considering Mandela’s love for children.
“When he became president, Nelson Mandela declared free health care for children and pregnant women because he understood the importance of good health for children as they are the future of any nation. So we honoured him with what he loved most, the children,” Ramathuba said.
Operations began at 8am and were due to carry on until midnight.
