THE HOBART DOCTOR EASING THE PAIN OF AFRICAN PATIENTS

A HOBART anaesthetist will this week travel to Africa for six weeks to help provide lifesaving surgeries to communities with limited access.

Wendy Falloon will be volunteering with Christian medical charity Mercy Ships to lend her skills.

“It ports usually in West Africa and stays in each port for nine months at a time,” Dr Falloon said.

“We do operations not available in that country or not available to those people because they can’t afford the services.”

The organisation performs a number of surgeries including on limb deformities in children, maxillofacial tumours, reconstructive surgeries and obstetric surgery on women who have suffered injuries during childbirth.

The charity also offers training to community members for less technical procedures.

“As well as offering individual surgeries there’s been a lot of focus on improving medical infrastructure. They do a lot of training in the country,” Dr Falloon said.

“They offer a course called helping babies breathe. It’s a course taught to midwives to resuscitate babies in the country.

“They help train people in early intervention for clubbed feet, which can prevent a lifetime of problems in kids.

“The eventual aim for Mercy Ships is to do themselves out of a job.”

An anaesthetist with Hobart Anaesthetic Group, it’s Dr Falloon’s sixth visit with Mercy Ships.

She leaves on Thursday to spend two weeks providing anaesthetics for surgeries before travelling around the country for four weeks to teach safe surgeries.

Dr Falloon said she wanted to help in Africa because it had a special place in her heart.

“I was born in South Africa and was lucky enough to immigrate to Australia when I was 12,” she said. “When I decided to do medicine I always wanted to go back.”

She said it was heartwarming to work with people whose lives were immediately improved.

“You can have a patient who drives a rickshaw around and if they’ve got a big hernia they can’t earn a living,” Dr Falloon said.

“Being involved in their care is incredibly rewarding and it’s very heartwarming, the gratitude you get from people.”

Donate at mercyships.org.au.