Stichting Simba

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Trauma Course

From Monday to Wednesday, the “Basics of open fractures” course was held in Sengerema, organized by Dutch and Tanzanian doctors and traditional healers. The OR building that opened last week, where there is an auditorium and transfer rooms on the 1st floor, was the scene of a beautiful and educational meeting between practitioners of regular and traditional care for patients with bone fractures.

With respect for each other's knowledge and skills, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists (who are actually a kind of plaster masters here) and bonesetters (traditional healers) from the area learned about the possibilities and impossibilities of regular and traditional care for bone fractures. The first reception and examination after a serious accident was also taught and tested with simulated patients, embodied by the organizing committee.

The aim of the course is to improve cooperation between traditional and regular care so that, in a very modern way, the right care can be provided in the right place. An uncomplicated fracture with a small displacement can be set and treated very well by a local bonesetter. Low-threshold and familiar to the patient. But a complex fracture that does not heal well deserves consultation with regular care. New ties were forged and old ones strengthened. Nice detail: the Dutch delegation consisted of 3 tropical doctors (Malouk Lap, Thom Hendriks and Joost Binnerts) who were trained in the Slingeland, and their trainer Erik Staal (now tropical trainer in Sengerema), and vice-trainer Susan Lemson (now tropical trainer in the Slingeland) meanwhile took over Erik's tasks in the Sengerema. A real reunion on the roof.