Dr. Marco De Ciantis has been to the type of places that most Canadians will never see. He has traveled to remote villages where there is no medical care, no electricity, no running water. He has spent tens of thousands of dollars to sleep in odd places, skip meals and endure physical discomforts.<\/p>\n
But the Castlegar chiropractor says it is all worthwhile.<\/p>\n
Since 2019, De Ciantis has been volunteering with Bridge to Health, an international non-profit organization that delivers mobile medical care in under-resourced regions such as the remote island communities of eastern Uganda.<\/p>\n
The organization provides a range of services including emergency medical, point-of-care ultrasound, ob\/gyn, dental and communicable disease education as well as educating local health practitioners.<\/p>\n
De Ciantis co-leads Bridge to Health\u2019s muscular-skeletal division, co-ordinating chiropractic, physiotherapy and occupational therapy components.<\/p>\n
He also leads an international concussion screening pilot study, adapting a B.C.-developed concussion assessment tool for use in Uganda where motorbike accidents \u2013 often without helmets \u2013 are the leading cause of head injury. The goal is to teach medical, clinical and nurse practitioners to delineate between concussions and other traumatic brain injuries.<\/p>\n
De Ciantis has been on numerous medical missions with the group.<\/p>\n
In Uganda, they go to multiple islands during a two-to-three week trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go to areas where they have not seen any medicine for maybe a century, or haven\u2019t seen a Caucasian for that long, if ever,\u201d said De Ciantis.<\/p>\n
He says the trips provide a sense of adventurism where you meet people from all over the world with similar values and within 24 hours you have become so close due to the intensity of the experience.<\/p>\n
The group goes to places where no other non-governmental organization has gone before, and they never quite know what exactly is going to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou show up in a boat that is leaking with 60-70 people with hundreds of pounds of equipment and pharmacy. Fingers crossed this works out, we don\u2019t get into trouble, no one gets hurt. We do what we can, then repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one island the group nicknamed Redemption Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first couple of times we went, we thought we were going to treat a couple hundred people and a couple thousand showed up. You never know what you are going to find.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say they don\u2019t prepare the best they can. Locations are chosen at least six months in advance, research into the area\u2019s needs takes place and supply acquisition begins.<\/p>\n
When the group arrives at their designated location, they set up a mobile hospital and begin to treat long lines of patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work until we either run out of supplies, the weather starts to change, or we feel threatened,\u201d says De Ciantis.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, they pack everything up and return to the mainland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are on an island we need at least an hour and a half to boat back \u2013 many times you are travelling in the dark and there is no electricity in the boat and they are navigating by stars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once they finally get back to their base camp, they do a debrief on what worked and what didn\u2019t, eat, sleep a few hours and then do the same thing the next day at a new location.<\/p>\n
Outreach missions typically last two or three weeks, but their impact continues much longer.<\/p>\n
Where appropriate, Bridge to Health incorporates local volunteers who are given on-site clinical training alongside qualified professionals and have the opportunity to see thousands of patients. The organization says this education component helps provide longer-term interventions focused on improving the county\u2019s health-care system as a whole.<\/p>\n
Prior to joining Bridge to Health, De Ciantis hadn\u2019t even been on a camping trip. Now he says enduring rough conditions in order to help people has become part of his fabric.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has reaffirmed many things in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those things is the difference between boundaries (what makes him uncomfortable) and limits (what is necessary to survive).<\/p>\n
\u201cYou quickly learn what you can do with no resources, relying on the only thing you know \u2013 your hands, your heart and the people around you \u2013 and you do amazing things.\u201d<\/p>\n
But humanitarian work is not without its trials. De Ciantis has caught both cholera and shingles on trips.<\/p>\n
But he says the benefits outweigh the burdens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned that a lot can be done for so many people. It doesn\u2019t matter where in the world you are, everyone is the same. Everyone has the same problems and the same joys, but maybe their resources are different. That\u2019s it. We are all the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you would like to learn more about Bridge to Health or to make a donation, go to bridgetohealth.ca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Marco De Ciantis has been to the type of places that most Canadians will never see. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[153],"class_list":{"0":"post-82473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uganda","8":"tag-uganda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116064977167697870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}