Medical Resident
Michele Orsi graduated from the University of Milan in 2014 and specialised in Gynaecology and Obstetrics in 2020. Today he works at the Obstetrics Unit of the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan and follows global health research projects with Doctors with Africa CUAMM in Padua.
“The approach to cooperation immediately impressed me. The first lesson of the training before departure was not medicine, but anthropology. Having identified a need, before proposing a project, in fact, you have to know the local reality, cultures and traditions, otherwise the risk is that the project will fail’.
Michele left in 2019 for Sierra Leone where he worked for six months at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in the capital Freetown. ‘After the civil war and the Ebola epidemic, the government of Sierra Leone asked CUAMM to support this teaching hospital in the capital because it was in really difficult conditions. Unstable water and electricity supplies, insufficient health staff, not to mention drugs and diagnostics, maternal and perinatal mortality rates among the highest in the world. With the help and supervision of my tutor, I supported the clinical work and training of local doctors, even organising an obstetric ultrasound course. It happened several times that I had to finish a caesarean section with the headlamp or a nurse’s mobile phone torch because of the constant blackouts, or to donate blood for transfusions, but don’t get discouraged,’ he says.
Africa became more than a training experience: ‘Once a specialist, I left for the same hospital in 2022. The responsibilities were very different: next to clinical work, I supported the hospital in training medical and non-medical staff, quality improvement and infection prevention, drug orders, and not least operational research. We carried out several research projects in order to improve our work based on the needs of that specific context. Once again, it was an opportunity to give and receive a lot, on a working and human level, sometimes having to deal with an emotional burden that was difficult to bear,’ he recounts.
In the difficult context of the one where he worked, however, Michele found great gratification, both human and work-related: ‘When I finished my experiences, I became the tutor of a JPO, which was not an easy task. We once visited a woman together who had had a dramatic infection, probably predisposed by prolonged labour before the transfer to us for the Caesarean section. The wound had compromised the abdominal wall to the point that it could not close, so this mother’s fate seemed sealed. However, I advised her not to lose heart and to continue treating her as she knew how. I made her realise that sometimes, in time, we can be surprised. After a month of dressings and antibiotics, the skin had gradually grown back and the wound had healed: the mother, although a little limp, was discharged with her baby.
“Working with African colleagues is constantly an opportunity, to share knowledge and above all to learn. It helps us to open our eyes to the world, to understand that there is no right and wrong culture, but stories, languages, foods and traditions to discover. Doctors, then, have the privilege of being in direct contact with patients and local colleagues, making this exchange inevitable and fascinating”.