Our surgeons work with medical professionals to provide opportunities for further training, implement new technology, and streamline inefficient healthcare systems.
UGANDA
PARTNERSHIPS
CoRSU Hospital
Our Involvement
The Rebalance Legacy Society partners with CoRSU hospital to help develop the surgical and rehabilitative services we take for granted in Canada. Visiting surgeons and rehabilitation specialists from Canada help train local Ugandan staff at the hospital, bring in much-needed modern equipment and technology, and help develop research projects.
Rebalance Legacy Society is also working to enhance capacity in the physiotherapy department at CoRSU. In 2015, Stanley Lubega, a physiotherapist at CoRSU, was sponsored to visit Victoria for training at RebalanceMD.
For more about our involvement with CoRSU, check out our news page
Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services in Uganda (CoRSU)
CoRSU is a specialized hospital facility in Kisube, Uganda for people with disabilities, providing subsidized life changing orthopaedic and plastic surgery to children. It is located near the capital city of Kampala and serves as a home base for many of the activities of the Rebalance Legacy Society.
CoRSU’s Mission is to be a key player in Uganda in preventing disability and reducing the consequences of impairment, through the provision of accessible, affordable, appropriate quality medical, therapy and community rehabilitation services for people with disability, prioritizing children.
The hospital also provides limited private services for adults needing joint replacement surgeries, arthroscopy, and other modern orthopaedic techniques.
CoRSU Hospital Introductory Video
Kumi Hospital & Orthopaedic Center
District of Kumi, Uganda
The district of Kumi in northern Uganda is one of the poorest rural districts in the country with a huge burden of untreated orthopaedic problems, particularly in children.
During his time in Uganda, Dr. Penny outreached Kumi Hospital, and continues to support this needy area of the country. An orthopaedic surgeon prodigy of Dr. Penny, Dr. John Ekure, has established an orthopaedic center in Kumi. The Rebalance Legacy Society is partnering with Kumi Hospital and with the Kumi Orthopaedic Center with a major outreach planned for October 2019.
Gluteal Fibrosis
Above Image: Children with gluteal fibrosis
Above Image: A child at Kumi Hospital with Gluteal Fibrosis
What is Gluteal Fibrosis?
One of the heartbreaking conditions that children suffer from in disproportionate numbers in Kumi district is gluteal fibrosis and post-injection paralysis.
These are disabling impairments that are the result of injections of the drug quinine into the buttocks of young children as a treatment for severe malaria. Quinine can damage muscle and nerve tissue. Muscle injury results in fibrosis and contracture, resulting in the children unable to sit or squat normally, and nerve injury results in polio-like foot deformity and paralysis.
Preliminary surveys have shown more than 1000 children in the district suffering from these conditions. Both of these conditions can be improved significantly with basic surgical procedures that can be accomplished in the Kumi hospitals. This unique problem has spurred a major research program in Kumi, a collaboration between four major universities, including Makerere University in Uganda, and the University of British Columbia, to identify how to prevent and treat this condition.
How You Can Help
In January 2020 a team from Canada and the United States went to Kumi Hospital and provided the support to treat 110 children with Gluteal Fibrosis.
The volunteer surgeons and experts donated their services free of charge and funded their own travel expenses. We would like to continue the support by repeating the outreach again soon as there were many children who had to be turned away.
Hospital costs are approximately $300 CDN per child. Can you help us by supporting a life-changing surgery for a child for $300?
The Uganda Orthopaedic Society
Supporting The Uganda Orthopaedic Society
At the time Dr. Penny went to Uganda in 1996 there were only six orthopedic surgeons in the whole country, including Dr. Penny. The specialty training program has now expanded dramatically, and there are almost 50 orthopedic surgeons in Uganda.
Efforts from Canada and other developed countries are now oriented primarily towards the training and development of these national surgeons. A recent innovation is the Uganda Orthopaedic Society, encouraging education, training and research.
The Rebalance Legacy Society is supporting the Uganda Orthopedic Society by partnering with national surgeons and developing training programs. The annual conference is in Kumi district in October 2019, followed by a "surgical camp" providing free surgical services to the rural poor suffering from orthopedic conditions. The Rebalance Legacy Society plans to join with their Ugandan colleagues at this conference and surgical camp in October 2019.
2019 Outreach Trip
The Outreach Team
An outreach of orthopaedic, rehabilitation, and orthopaedic technology experts from the Rebalance Legacy Society happened in October 2019, including professionals from Victoria, elsewhere in Canada, and even the United States. Several activities are planned including:
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Attending the Uganda orthopaedic Society conference
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Assisting and partnering at the Uganda Orthopaedic Society surgical camp in Kumi
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Advancing the gluteal fibrosis research program in Kumi
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Performing surgical procedures, in partnership with our Ugandan colleagues, to correct the deformities of gluteal fibrosis and post-injection paralysis in at least 100 children in Kumi.
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Sports & exercise medicine training, continuing our previous work at CoRSU hospital and with the National Council for Sport.
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Surgical support, CoRSU Hospital.
We want to make a difference not just in our community, but around the world.
Have you benefited from orthopaedic and rehabilitation services in Canada that we take so much for granted?
Help support us as we share our expertise and our concern with children and young adults on the other side of the world, in one of the poorest countries on the planet, who do not have access to the same quality services that we enjoy.
We invite your generous partnership.
