Tony Bartelme's Books

A Surgeon in the Village

An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa

By: Tony Bartelme

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A Surgeon in the Village

An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa

By: Tony Bartelme

A “lyrical, inspirational” story of doctors who changed the health care of an African nation (Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation) Dr. Dilan Ellegala arrives in Tanzania, shocked to find the entire country has just three brain surgeons for its population of forty-two million. Haydom Lutheran Hospital lacks even the most basic surgical tools, not even a saw to open a patient’s skull. Here, people with head injuries or brain tumors heal on their own or die. When confronted with a villager suffering from a severe head trauma, Dilan buys a tree saw from a farmer, sterilizes it, and then uses it to save the man’s life. Yet Dilan realizes that there are far too many neurosurgery patients for one person to save, and of course he will soon be leaving Tanzania. He needs to teach someone his skills. He identifies a potential student in Emmanuel Mayegga, a stubborn assistant medical officer who grew up in a mud hut. Though Mayegga has no medical degree, Dilan sees that Mayegga has the dexterity, intelligence, and determination to do brain surgery. Over six months, he teaches Mayegga how to remove tumors and treat hydrocephalus. And then, perhaps more important, Dilan teaches Mayegga how to pass on his newfound skills. Mayegga teaches a second Tanzanian, who teaches a third. It’s a case of teach-a-man-to-fish meets brain surgery. As he guides these Tanzanians to do things they never thought possible, Dilan challenges the Western medical establishment to do more than send vacationing doctors on short-term medical missions. He discovers solutions that could transform health care for two billion people across the world. A Surgeon in the Village is the incredible and riveting account of one man’s push to “train-forward”—to change our approach to aid and medical training before more lives are needlessly lost. His story is a testament to the transformational power of teaching and the ever-present potential for change. As many as seventeen million people die every year because of a shortage of surgeons, more than die from AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. Dilan Ellegala and other visionaries are boldly proposing ways of saving lives.

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Page Count

290

Publisher

Beacon Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807044881

ISBN 13

9780807044889

Send Forth The Healing Sun

By: Tony Bartelme,Carin Hoek-Ellegala

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Send Forth The Healing Sun

By: Tony Bartelme,Carin Hoek-Ellegala

In Latin, the word for doctor isn’t healer—it’s teacher. Dilan Ellegala, an accomplished American neurosurgeon, had reached the highest rungs of the American medical establishment but was on the verge of burning out. In search of personal restoration, he risked his career to take a sabbatical at a remote missionary hospital in Haydon, Tanzania. He discovered a medical world entirely different from the one he knew. Tanzania has just two doctors for every 100,000 people and three neurosurgeons in a country with a population of 43 million—a lack of access to health care that is so extreme, it’s difficult to imagine. After meeting Emmanuel Mayegga, an assistant medical officer who grew up in a tiny mud hut, Dilan realized that Mayegga had the dexterity, intelligence and confidence to be a great surgeon, despite his lack of formal education. Dilan began training him to perform brain surgery procedures, giving him the tools to become an agent of change in his own country. Today, what began as one doctor teaching another has become the NGO Madaktari (Swahili for “doctors”) that has grown into a group that sends hundreds of doctors around the world to serve as mentors and to create a sustainable new model for global health based on Dilan’s “train-forward” philosophy. Send Forth the Healing Sun is the incredible and inspiring story of one man’s pioneering journey that is changing medicine and making a difference around the world.

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