Last year ,Rotherams’ Liz Gill and our Chairman Kevin Page travelled to Dhaka using IMPT raffle donations of £260 plus £800 from a charity fundraising event. All money raised was used for equipment and materials and was donated to Dhaka Community Hospital. They supplied equipment and materials and of course their experience to a needy society, this is their personal account of the trip.

It was an unforgettable experience, and when we arrived at Dhaka laden with the materials etc we didn’t know quite what to expect. I’d had conversations with Professor Ferdousi prior to the trip via satellite phone but with the language barrier, it was difficult to anticipate exact requirements. So we took a guess!

Arriving, 7am Dhaka time on 11th November, we were collected by Prof Ferdousi. The airport was chaotic as coincidentally there was a world summit meeting in Dhaka so security was tight. We were fortunate enough to stay at Prof’s lovely flat in the centre of Dhaka, reminding me of an old colonial house, with a ceiling fan, antique furniture and 2.5 servants. I half expected Earnest Hemmingway to welcome us (it’s a female thing).

He gave us Friday off, although we felt fine; but I was up the following morning at 5am, woken by the activity in the street. In Bangladesh nothing is wasted, children arrived at 5am, worked in the heat of the day, salvaging a living from whatever they could find, stopping only occasionally. Always with smiling faces!

Other stallholders started to prepare rice, vegetables and of course curry. Kevin was tempted to sample this but thought better of it, or at least till the last day. We worked for two days at Dhaka Community Hospital, run entirely by charity. With tittle or no facilities, with one floor completely derelict, but somehow they manage. We visited theatres where nothing is sterilised only ‘washed’ but interestingly there is no MRSA in India/Bangladesh so although our infection control teams would be horrified, they’re doing something right.

We heard none of our Western complaining culture. People were very grateful to receive the treatment on offer. We saw one of the wards and worked on the top floor with an amazing view of the city of Dhaka, the railway track and the slums where over 2,000 people lived.

We taught 12 qualified doctors orthodontic techniques, facial prosthetics, burns, and general dental work. The first two days were spent in the makeshift ‘laboratory’. Then we visited Delta Hospital, on the city outskirts. It was a lovely place next to the river, housing the ‘laboratory’. Mr Ferdousi asked us to see a patient requiring surgical reconstruction; Kevin developed a treatment plan, took a facial impression and made a surgical template. The rest of the group practised facial impression techniques, which was quite amusing to say the least; alginate everywhere! The group brought various type of work for us to plan, we completed some work for them whilst teaching but unfortunately they had booked no further patients.

Its not until you’ve been in a place for a while that you realise things are not simple; it takes time. Everything is complex, booking in patients, even the materials/equipment we sent were being held by the local post office, money required before releasing, corruption is rife. But we left them with several completed artificial eyes and plenty of materials and hope that they are put to good use. And after lengthy negotiation they received their equipment.

The last day was spent at Prof’s private clinic. It was crazy with kids running around but fun. Kevin ended up in a small room demonstrating curing techniques as they’d had problems curing resin without porosity. That room was hotter than a sauna! But it worked; he managed to produce a template that wasn’t full of holes.

He then gave a lecture on burns appliances, which I guess was quite in keeping with the working conditions.

Having seen Dhaka for ourselves we now understand what the case of need is over there and will hopefully return next year with a slightly larger team; we intend to teach the students by treating patients, in this way the students will see the clinical work in addition to been shown the laboratory techniques, the patients of course will receive an appliance at the end of treatment. We will have to plan ahead, Prof Ferdousi is in Britain this July and I hope to meet with him to discuss the arrangements.

We spent a week teaching, often not finishing until 9pm, and up till 1am preparing the following days work. The final day we worked until 2pm, returned to Prof’s flat for lunch, and then hit the road to Chittagong. Dhaka traffic? Whilst the summit was on the traffic congestion was reduced and beggars removed (I dread to think where to). After the summit, everyone came out to play. I have never seen as many cars, bikes, rickshaws, men women, children, and bananas, millions of bananas! Consequently things take time. It took 7 hours to reach Chittagong. I tried to sleep but Kevin stayed awake because he said someone had to be there to drag us out of the wreckage. People have no formal driving test or qualification, they drive anywhere and everywhere. Sunset provided a little relief as we couldn’t see the on coming trucks!

Prof’s niece, travelling with us, was ill, the road was a little rough, if any at all. She vomited so we stopped so she could wash, I joined Mr Ferdousi to help her, there were 2 men close by staring at us, we were westerners in Bangladesh, I guess they don’t see that many so far from the city, but at that moment I thought of England and how far we were from home. By the time we returned to the van a group had gathered, some smiled, some stared, probably wondering we were doing in the middle of nowhere. I was relieved to get back on the road. That’s the only time I ever felt apprehensive, and it was probably more to do with the situation we were in rather than the people. We finally arrived in Chittagong at an amazing guesthouse. A real sanctuary amid the dusty chaos of the streets. We had a shower (a tap on the wall, a bucket and a hole in the floor) and a good meal and a lovely sweet cup of tea. I loved their tea; goes with the territory I guess.

The following day was spent looking around Chittagong and a park and a boat ride on Foyles Lake looking for elusive kingfishers . It was so peaceful but very hot, I regretted leaving my brolly to keep off the sun. Westerners are instant kid magnets; they appeared from nowhere. They were lovely, very polite, always smiling and even more appreciative if you gave them some money.

We assumed we would head back to Dhaka but the Prof had other ideas and we hit the road again to Cox’s Bazaar. This for me was one of the best parts of the trip, spectacular scenery and I wished we could have stopped more for photographs. Passing rice fields, villages, small schools with immaculately dressed pupils, vegetable markets, saw mills and a number of cabinet makers stalls stocked with exquisite work.

We arrived in Cox’s around sunset, Mukta (Profs niece) had never seen the sea beforeand we ran to the beach to catch the last rays of the sun. We made it; I don’t know what was prettier, Muktas face or the sunset. A lovely spot, the longest stretch of beach in Asia, Bangladeshis with money holiday at Cox’s Bazaar. But there were unforgettable images. Poor children in rags; We found two half starved, begging for food and money. Kevin was the only one who sensibly suggested providing a meal; I was stunned. So we gave them a little money, probably not nearly enough.

We wanted to give all our money, but had to take care not to offend our host; however we intend to return to Cox’s Bazaar with provisions for the children next year. There is a refugee camp close by, the people come from neighbouring countries and are not welcome by the locals in Cox’s. We weren’t made aware of this until our return to England otherwise we would have tried to do more whilst we were there.

On our way back to Chittagong the following day we stopped off at a village, we were instantly surrounded as usual and one of the men asked us to take his daughter to England. I didn’t hear him, which is perhaps just as well as I wanted to bring them all home. It was a very emotional trip but one that we’re very much looking forward to repeating again next year.

Professor Ferdousi is a lovely man; he works in England for 6 months then goes home to Dhaka for the remainder of the year. All the money he earns in England he takes back with him, investing it into the hospital. I’ve never met such an unselfish consultant surgeon; when he works here he even travels everywhere on the bus! He employs three ‘servants’ one is a cook, one a cleaner and the little half pint he took in after he lost his job and had no where to stay. I can’t imagine that happening in the west.

I suspect we returned home from Bangladesh having learnt more than we taught!!

This is a very personal account of our trip to Dhaka and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it. Once again I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who offered help, in particular Principality Medical, Polymer Systems Ltd, Technovent and Rotherham General Hospital and to respectfully remind everyone (especially the band 9’s!) that we are returning next November and any donations will be very much appreciated.

Liz Gill - BSc(Hon) MIMPT
Maxillofacial Prosthetist