DONATE

NEWSLETTER
Newsletter
Please subscribe to our newsletter!
Shortly after sunset, a crowd of perhaps 40 people rush onto the hospital grounds. Everyone’s in a frenzy – a sure sign of a severely injured patient. They carry in a strong-looking 25-year-old man. He was shot on his way back from the weekly cattle market, only a short walk away from the hospital, and his 20 cattle were stolen. Blood spurts out of his right arm. A nurse rushes to the gate to press down on the wound with his bare hands to stem the blood flow. The relatives of the pale, unconscious man carry him straight into the operating theatre where he is placed on the operating table. The nurses attach a patient monitor and drip, and start ventilating. Roger, the lab technician, immediately starts to take blood samples from the ten nearest relatives to compare them with the blood of the victim. Four of them are compatible donors, so hospital staff plan to take about half a litre from each.
The projectile removed from the young man's wound.
But something strange happens. The four potential donors leave the hospital hurriedly to look for someone cooking rice at the market. They return just twenty minutes later, one of them still chewing. An unfamiliar tribal custom is revealed – the relatives are only prepared to give blood on a full stomach. As soon as they get back, their blood is directly transfused. Only now can the surgery begin, and luckily it is successful.
We later learn that the young man was lucky, as there happened to be a family just outside the hospital gate who were willing to share their freshly boiled rice. It can occur that even in the most pressing emergency and with a loved one in critical condition, the donors insist on first bringing a large pot of rice to a boil before starting the transfusion.
PROJECTS
17.03.2016
80% of Madagascans live in extreme poverty. As there is no universal health insurance, Doctors for Madagascar covers the medical costs for patients who otherwise could not afford medical care.
read more
17.11.2015
Doctors for Madagascar organises regular aid missions with volunteer doctors and medical staff from Europe. These volunteers treat patients directly and also provide training for local staff.
read more
01.10.2015
Southern Madagascar urgently needs qualified medical personnel. Our project "Skills to Save Lives" provides medical training for doctors, nurses and technical staff in one of the poorest areas of the country.
read more
01.09.2015
Pregnant women with severe labour complications often only reach a clinic after traveling for hours on an oxcart – with serious consequences for them and their child. Most have no access to pre-natal care. Doctors for Madagascar is working to improve care for pregnant women and newborns.
read more
17.08.2015
In Madagascar, patients are generally fed and cared for by their families. So that food shortages don't get in the way of treatment, Doctors for Madagascar covers the subsistence costs of all in-patients in our partner hospitals.
read more
17.07.2015
Many hospital buildings and health centres in Madagascar are in a desperate state, with no money for even the simplest repairs. Doctors for Madagascar supports hospitals and health centres to build and renovate essential facilities.
read more
17.06.2015
Kept in good condition, hospital equipment saves lives. But extreme climates, inconsistent electricity and inadequate maintenance in Africa wear out medical equipment much faster than in the UK. We provide not only medical equipment, but also training on maintenance and care.
read more
CLOSE UP
FUNDRAISING EVENTS
The Junges Ensemble Berlin, one of Germany’s leading youth orchestras, bewitched its audience with Beethoven’s masterful violin concerto and Prokofiev’s fiery Fifth Symphony. What an evening at the Berlin Philharmonic!
read more
FUNDRAISING EVENTS
Since 2012, Doctors for Madagascar has been an NGO partner at Praxis Update, a continuing medical education conference for GPs.
read more
PATIENT STORIES
Today a mother came into the hospital carrying a baby – one week old with ashen skin and a belly distended like a barrel.
read more
BEYOND MEDICINE
For a long time, relatives cooked meals for patients on traditional open fires in the wasteland outside the hospital site.
read more
PATIENT STORIES
April 2012: Sweaty and shivering with exertion, two oxen drag a heavily laden cart the last few metres to Fotadrevo hospital. The passenger, Tiana, has a 40°C fever and is nine months pregnant.
read more
MISSION REPORTS
Financing an aid mission yourself? Yes, it’s possible - Johannes Häußermann is the proof, with his crowdfunding drive "An Engineer for Madagascar".
read more
BACKGROUND
Developing countries have seen dramatic improvements in many areas over the last 15 years.
read more
BACKGROUND
Madagascar stands apart from sub-Saharan African nations with regard to HIV/AIDS rates. Why?
read more
PATIENT STORIES
The sun burns hot on 7th December 2012. One of Médecins Sans Frontières’ white 4x4s pulls into the gate of the hospital in Fotadrevo, carrying three women from the town of Bekily, 60 km away.
read more
ON THE GROUND
Nine hours’ worth of parched land pass by our 4x4 as we travel from Toliara to Fotadrevo. Cacti, shrubs, scant trees and now and then a village of mud huts. Sand and dust reach as far as the eye can see, in shades of red, brown and grey.
read more
Newsletter
Please subscribe to our newsletter!