Scots charity relaunches in bid to carry out more miracles of surgery

ReSurge Africa hopes the new title will better reflect the aims of the organisation, to carry out crucial re-constructive surgery and boost its profile.

More than 8,000 people have had life-changing treatment through the organisation, formerly known as International Reconstructive Plastic Surgery (IRPS).

But demand continues to grow and outstrip the work it can provide.

Abnormalities, particularly facial disfigurement, carry severe social stigma in Africa and victims are often socially shunned and unable to work.

Even children can find themselves outcasts of communities, or even rejected by their own families.

Sally McNair, television news presenter and journalist, whose father is a surgeon, will be the new patron of the charity.

She said she planned to be "heavily involved" with its work and goals.

"It's easy to take so much for granted when you have the expertise, training and facilities to correct many 'quirks of nature' but for these children, the opportunity of surgery is the difference between a future and simply existing," she said.

The charity was created by Scotsman Dr Jack Mustarde who was appalled on a visit to Ghana, to discover that a country of more than 16 million had no burns or reconstructive surgeons.

More than 50,000 of the country's population were severely affected by burns or deformity.

A hospital run by the charity is staffed by leading reconstructive surgeons and anaesthetists who sacrifice their holiday to work in the purpose-built unit run by Ghana's health ministry.

Patients in the 73 bed hospital, which has eight wards and 18 beds for burns patients, vary from babies to the very elderly.

Key to the charity's work is training surgeons in Africa so the nation's own medical staff can one day carry out the crucial treatment.

So far five African doctors have been to Scotland to qualify as reconstructive surgeons and have since returned to Ghana to work and train others there.

The charity hopes this training programme will eventually lead to a self-sufficient organisation which no longer requires the support of the charity.

Martyn Webster, a leading reconstructive surgeon in Scotland, heads up the small ReSurge Africa team.

He said: "This name change represents the evolution of the charity since its inception and the direction in which we are heading, to ensure the training programme is firmly in place and to support the establishment of new hospitals in other areas of Africa such as Sierra Leone.

"Core training is essential to the future of our efforts and we are proactively working towards seeing the hospital through to standing on its own two feet."As we have said all along - our success will be our demise."

He said many of the operations carried out were to correct a cleft palate, an operation he described as a simple and straightforward procedure yet had a tremendous effect.

He added: "It is the difference between a future of family and employment or living on the edge of society where their opportunities are significantly limited."

The average life expectancy in West Africa is just 45-years-old with woman and children being common victims of burns.

School-age children in poor nations are more likely to die of burns annually, than from tuberculosis or malaria, according to the World Health Organisation.

Nearly 4 million women in poor countries suffer severe burns each year, with females 17 times more likely to be burnt than in richer countries.

ReSurge said just five per cent of donations to the charity go on administration with the remaining 95 per cent going toward retraining and treatment.

Martyn Webster: ReSurge Africa has been healing shattered lives for 15 years

For the past 15 years a little known charity has been changing the lives of tens of thousands of people in West Africa. ReSurge Africa, the new name for International Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, was the brainchild of Scottish surgeon Jack Mustarde who, on a visit to Ghana, was appalled to discover that not one plastic surgeon existed for a country with a population of 16 million people.

Driven to make a difference, Jack established Ghana's first reconstructive surgery unit and since the mid 1990s more than fifty Scottish specialists have freely given their time and expertise to create a service that is now all but self-sustaining. A 73-bed unit with two operating theatres has been built and equipped, with Ghanaian medical staff trained in reconstructive techniques and rehabilitation.

Deformity due to congenital malformation, burns or disease is a fact of life in West Africa, one of the poorest regions on earth. Those afflicted live a terrible, isolated life. Modern reconstructive surgery can change their lives and allow them to lead a positive, integrated and infinitely more pleasant life, contributing to society rather than depending upon it.

More than 50,000 patients, from infants to the elderly, have attended the Accra unit. Patients like John Bortey (pictured above), a cheerful young man whose face and head were ravaged by a disease called noma. This gangrene-type condition starts with a mouth ulcer and rapidly develops to destroy flesh and bone. John lived for 15 years with this devastating deformity and disability until, over a two-year period, ReSurge Africa teams performed highly complex cranio-facial surgery to repair the damage.

His lower jaw was returned to its original position; part of his hipbone was used to rebuild his missing upper jaw. John can now eat and speak normally, his appearance has been vastly improved and a final operation will improve appearance and function even further. Without Resurge Africa, this surgery would not have been possible.

Our primary and long-term aim is to train and empower local surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and therapists. In Ghana, happily, this is now nearing fruition.

• More details of the work of ReSurge Africa can be found at:www.resurgeafrica.org.