“Not difficult, but different” – interview with a Hungarian medical missionary in Malawi
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We have reported about the 19th Hungarian medical missionary group arriving in Malawi, Africa and the adventures they had to face during the first days of their stay. Afri café conducted several phone interviews with one of the medics, so now we can experience the story from an insider’s point of view.
The interview was conducted with Dr Csaba Loibl, professor assistant at the University of Pécs, Department of Anaesthetics and Intensive Therapy. As it was revealed previously, the initial number of the team was set to be five, but one of the medics has fallen so ill that she could not participate in the mission.
The mission took place between 12 June and 27 June. The interview was carried out while the missionaries were still in Blantyre, Malawi, treating patients at the Queen Elizabeth hospital.
Dr Loibl described Malawi as a beautiful country, where one meets severe poverty alongside extreme wealth.
The Hungarian team, however, treats mostly the poorer strata of society, representing challenges never faced before in Hungary.
As the anaesthesiologist reveals, they were presented with a power outage during an operation. When asked by the interviewer about the protocol that should be followed in such situations, Loibl told the listeners that the most important thing is not to panic, as the safety of the patient must be ensured. If the patient is secured, the only thing that one can do is to wait for the personnel to restore the power. This took about 10 minutes in their case, after which the operation continued seamlessly.
On their first day, a water outage slowed down the working process, so the Hungarian missionaries were up for a real challenge. Despite this, the work they have carried out was not hard, only different from what they are used to.
The biggest challenge was the shocking difference between the Hungarian medical system to which they were accustomed to and the local one: