Medical Hope for Congo

The Congo, with a population of over 65 million, does not have one plastic surgeon who specialize in burn treatment. Therefore, people in the congo may die from even relatively simple burns. Currently, Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, is training the first Congolese plastic surgeon to specialize in burn treatment.

 Dr Leon Mubenga, a 33 year-old general surgeon from the Democratic Republic of Congo, has arrived at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for a two-month qualification course in burn treatment. Dr Mubenga will be the first doctor in his country trained to care for burns.

According to Dr Mubenga, the field of plastic surgery does not exist in Congo. “Treatment options are few due to limited knowledge and suitable equipment,” says Dr Mubenga. “In contrast to western countries, many patients with relatively small percentages of burns on their bodies die.”

Dr Mubenga’s visit at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa is part of a project organized by Moriah Africa, a voluntary group aimed to assist Congo. Dr Gila Garaway (62), an environmental development specialist living in Tiberias, Israel, established the organization in 2002. “For many years, my husband and I worked in Congo as consultants for different organizations. After his death, in a plane crash, I decided to work on bringing different expertise to the country,” said Dr Garaway. “In this project we constantly seek experts with whom we can collaborate.”

Dr Garaway invests most of her efforts in two large hospitals in eastern Congo, a war zone in recent years. Dr Mubenga works in one of these hospitals in the city of Bokabo. Says Dr Garaway, this facility serves an area larger than Israel, with twice Israel’s population.

An acquaintance of Dr Garaway’s, Dr Yosef Berger, a senior physician in Rambam’s Department of Plastic Surgery and Director of the Plastic Surgery Service at Poriyah Hospital in Tiberias, brought together Moriah Africa and Rambam. He then volunteered to go to Congo to train doctors, a move backed by both bodies. Unfortunately, when donors cancelled promised funds for equipment, Dr Berger was forced to postpone his trip. Maintaining its momentum, Rambam arranged for Dr Mubenga’s visit, and has planned to bring another Congolese doctor to the hospital. “This is a wonderful project that Israel is involved in,” says Dr Berger, who still intends to travel to Congo to train physicians in the future.

Meanwhile, said Prof Yehuda Ullman, Director of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Rambam and Chairman of the Israel Association of Plastic Surgery, Dr Mubenga is learning a great deal. “These have been two eventful weeks, and Dr Mubenga has taken part in six operations. From what I understood, patients in Congo die from burns on 30% of their bodies. Here in Israel, we succeed in saving those with burns on 80-90% of their bodies. While he is here, Dr Mubenga can certainly gain the expertise needed to save his patients.”

“When I return to Congo, I will pass on my new knowledge to my colleagues,” says Dr Mubenga. “This way we can save more lives.” 

Photographs of Dr Leon Mubenga are available upon request from Dganit Kenig, Spokesperson’s

Assistant, the Spokesperson’s Office, Rambam Health Care Campus

Contact details:

Phone no. 972-4-854-2718; 972-54-206-3363; Email address: d_kenig@rambam.health.gov.il