McMullin Madagascar Musings

McMullin Madagascar Musings

15 years of Volunteer Urology Service Development

by Dr Richard McMullin, Volunteer Urologist

In mid-2013, I received an unexpected phone call from Sue Chapman, who had been our Urology trainee in Ballarat way back in 1995.  It was an invitation to join her on a medical aid mission in Madagascar in October.  Like many doctors, I’d been attracted to the idea of medical aid, but had not made the first step.  Sue had already made four visits, starting the program in 2009.

It’s hard to prepare for the shock of confrontation when you land in Antananarivo. The sweaty crowds, the bustle, the rattling taxicabs and cattle drawn carts, the pot-holed roads, the dilapidated French colonial buildings and the oppressive summer heat draw you into this poor but mesmerising country.

Our medical base is Toliara, a further hour by plane in the southwest of Madagascar.  Flat, dusty and arid, it’s hard to imagine a harsher place to eke out a living, yet hundreds of thousands somehow do.

Here we confront sinewy elderly men with urinary catheters and hopeful eyes, many having walked for days from their villages in the countryside, accompanied by loyal wives, sons and daughters. Some have not passed urine for months or years, and ADFA provides their only chance for resuming normal life.

For the team to do this safely and efficiently, much preparation is needed. Sue Chapman explained the infrastructure needed for us to make a difference. Nothing can be taken for granted. We are grateful for Toliara to provide a clinic to see our patients, a room in which to operate and local personnel to translate for us and care for the patients, but everything else comes via ADFA. Even the operating table, the anaesthetic machine and diathermy are second-hand Australian gear.