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At first it was pure curiosity. Gino Strada was about to become a cardiac and pulmonary transplant surgeon in the 1980s, having operated at Stanford and Pittsburgh Universities in the UK and South Africa. But the native of Milan wanted to gain more experience "in the world", as he says, out of curiosity, "to see what a surgeon 's work looks like in countries where he does not want to". there are almost no surgeons ". Strada joined the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1988 and sent him to Quetta, Pakistan, for a few months to operate in an ICRC-run hospital near the Afghan border.
He had never expected that he would meet there. Strada was first confronted with the war and its aftermath. At the hospital, they treated countless wounded people in Afghanistan, he said, many of whom were injured by landmines and very often children injured by toy mines. . Mines that look like toys and attract children. He began asking questions such as "What do children have to do with war?" Or "How can a human brain plan and implement a strategy to maim children in the enemy country? "
Free Treatments
Today, 30 years later, Strada says," This experience has completely changed my life. " he planned to exercise for the ICRC were in years. "Since then, I have never worked in a European hospital", he tells us at the end of June during our meeting at the Urgent Foundation of Milan. In the years following his first deployment, Strada operated on war victims in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Peru, Somalia and Bosnia. Meanwhile, he also realized that 90% of war casualties are civilians. "At first I thought it was only in Afghanistan," says Strada, then he realized that was the case in all conflicts. "The problem is war, no matter who fights against whom."
To better serve the countless victims of the war, he founded in 1994 with his wife Teresa (deceased in 2009) the Emergency Foundation, a non-governmental organization (NGO), its purpose is to offer medical treatment and free surgical and high quality to victims of war and landmines. It was obvious, says Strada, that the need for surgeons in the war zones was enormous. "So we formed a small team and we went where we needed it."
The emergency has developed rapidly – although Strada did not plan it that way. However, a campaign against antipersonnel mines in Italy was so successful that the urgency quickly became well known and donations began to pour in. Each year between 300,000 and 400,000 people contribute a small amount, which is still the case today, says Strada. Most donations come from Italy, but Strada now wants to make the organization more internationally known. To this end, he founded various sister foundations, including a subsidiary in Switzerland.
Leg prostheses for mine victims in a hospital in Kabul. Photo: Damir Sagolj (Reuters)
Today, Emergency is a medium-sized NGO with a business figure of more than 50 million euros. About 2,500 employees work in various emergency clinics and hospitals in Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq and other theaters of war. The foundation 's headquarters in Milan employs 150 people additional, including volunteers.
Emergency was Strada, driven by his indignation at the war and the suffering that the innocent meets, almost constantly moving. For eight or nine months a year, he operated in his hospitals, teaching local doctors how to treat wounds surgically, and at the same time quickly destroying new clinics and hospitals. He himself has operated on more than 30,000 war victims over the last 30 years, and he, who likes to call a "surgical animal," a surgical animal. For his unwavering commitment, Strada received the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2015.
High-Quality Heart Surgery
Strada is a radical humanist who tirelessly fights for the abolition of the war, but also the one who fights the war. See medicine as a human right and always meet his patients with great empathy. "I do not see why I should treat a friend in Italy differently from an Afghan patient," says Strada, leaning back and lighting a cigarette. "I feel morally compelled to offer the best possible treatment to everyone."
This is also the maxim of Emergency. This is illustrated by the Salam Hospital Center for Cardiac Surgery in Khartoum, Sudan. According to Strada, it is the only hospital in Africa offering high quality heart surgery, with state-of-the-art facilities and sanitary standards that have not even been met in Western hospitals.
"Hygiene is the most important factor regarding the outcome of an operation," says Strada. In the decade since the inception of the hospital, Emergency has conducted 50,000 cardiac consultations and 7,000 open heart operations with very low mortality rates, as Strada points out. He still operates in Khartoum and does it, much like a lot, with great passion. "I love heart surgery as much as I like war surgery."
"With some limitations, I feel good enough to continue working for the foundation."
Strada hates war just as passionately, and vehemently advocates its abolition. Is not it utopian? "Not at all!" Strada fight and peach the next cigarette out of the box. This is a huge necessity and the only realistic option for saving humanity from collective suicide. A single atomic bomb is enough to jeopardize the survival of mankind. He said it with Albert Einstein, who has repeatedly said how terrible the war is and that it must be abolished at all costs.
One feels that Strada is far from having completed his mission. But his health hit him, the smoker of the chain, who, it seems, cared more and more about the health of others than his own. However, it puts into perspective the impression: "With some restrictions, I feel good enough to continue working for the foundation." Strada has been living in Milan since March, an unusually long time for a man with such creative envy. Does not that bring him back to the crisis areas? Yes, but there will still be a few weeks in Milan. "I have just 70 years old, I need a vacation." (Tages-Anzeiger)
Created: 27.07.2018, 18:24
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