Medical elective students from Cambridge University work with amputees at SPWT
Two medical students fro Cambridge University trained in providing prosthetic services and artificial limbs work with amputee patients at SPWT Hospital. The student doctors were trained by Naya Qadam NGO which specialises in providing prosthesis to amputees at a low cost. Naya Qadam and SPWT developed a partnership to help bring these services to rural areas in Bangladesh as well in the capital Dhaka. Many people in these areas suffer serious injuries often at work whilst farming, cutting timber or milling. People in these areas are too poor to access adequate treatment or follow up and their injuries result in amputation leaving them incapacitated and unable to work. By providing artificial limbs to amputees SPWT hope to change peoples lives.
The two students Matt Walton and Zaamin Hussain arrived in Bangladesh in June 2016 to work with Sircer Pasha Welfare Trust to increase awareness in Sarishabari, Jamalpur on the needs of amputees and to find patients that they may be able to assist. Working with the medical staff at SPWT going deep in to the char and rural areas, performing mobile clinics and education sessions at nearby schools the team were able to find patients in much need of artificial limbs. The teams measured the patients for appropriate fitting, taught basic care for the limb and began the first stage of providing artificial limbs for these people.
Follow up for these patients with the provision of prosthesis, training and physiotherapy is planned for the coming months.
