From left, Tikur Anbessa’s Dr. Mersha, neurosurgery chief, and Dr. Ebenezer with Ohio State’s Dr. Eric Sauvageau and Dr. Andrew Shaw as they enjoy coffee before making rounds at Tikur Anbessa (Black Lion) teaching medical center at Addis Ababa University. (Photo by Rick Harrison, Ohio State University Communications)

By Andrew Shaw
Clinical House Instructor at Wexner Medical Center, Ohio State

Since returning from Ethiopia I am filled with excitement. The people there are incredibly welcoming, warm, and giving. They invited us to see their patients, wards, and hospitals. The doctors there exhibit such passion for medicine, learning, and are always wanting a lecture.

Establishing a long term relationship with the Neurosurgery Department at Black Lion hospital will be mutually beneficial.

Upon our arrival, I believed we would be the teachers, but I often found myself on the learning end. The pathology they see is often advanced and requires much skill to treat.

You might recall the show MacGyver. As Wikipedia says, “Resourceful and possessed of an encyclopedic knowledge of the physical sciences, [MacGyver] solves complex problems with everyday materials he finds at hand, along with his ever-present duct tape and Swiss Army knife.”

Our Ethiopian partners are the “MacGyvers” of medicine doing amazing things with limited resources.