Pediatric Care
UNC Project-Uganda’s clinical activities are focused on inpatient pediatric care at Mulago Hospital in support of its primary mission to provide sustainable delivery of compassionate and competent pediatric health care.
Pediatric Intensive Care
In 2004, the project team, led by UNC Professor of Pediatrics Keith Kocis, MD, built Uganda’s first pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). They brought essential equipment for ICU monitoring, resuscitation, and respiratory support, as well as a broad range of much-needed medicines. To ensure that the PICU would be sustainable, the team of physicians and nurses trained local medical staff in proper use of the equipment. Many hospital staff had no previous experience with medical equipment considered standard in the United States and other developed nations.
Cardiac Surgery and Intensive Care
Every year in Uganda, children with fully operable congenital heart defects die due to a lack of skilled cardiac surgeons and advanced medical equipment. Joined by Craig Sable, MD, a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC) and others from CNMC, the team created a highly functioning pediatric cardiac ICU with four fully monitored beds at Mulago. Soon the Kampala Daily Monitor’s front-page headline read, “Mulago performs open heart surgery,” the first such surgery in Uganda since the 1970s. The team operated on 9 more children during their October 2007 trip. 10 additional open heart surgeries were performed in October 2008.
The next cardiac surgery trip is scheduled for September 26 – October 11, 2009. To help support this program, click here.
Read the article about the Uganda heart surgery program in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Carolina Alumni Review
