They named the first baby born in the hospital Alessandro, like his father, to whom the Cameroonian community of Douala owes so, so much. Without his lifelong passion, perhaps, the newly inaugurated structure dedicated to orthopedics by his son Cesare and the Ortopedici.org association would not have existed, but that would be another story. The real story, however, is that Cesare Faldini, director of the Orthopedic Clinic 1 of the Rizzoli institute, together with the association that his father, who passed away in 2020, founded over twenty years ago to bring orthopedic surgery to Africa, he managed to inaugurate an orthopedic hospital in Douala. «I can truly define this day as one of the most exciting of my life», acknowledged Faldini, with a hint of emotion, because having achieved an objective like this, if it had still been there, «would have made even the dad”.
Furnishings and equipment from Pianoro
But the true story of this hospital is also much more: there is the gratitude of a community towards Alessandro Faldini (“I was operated on by him ten years ago”, recalled one of the patients, proudly showing a cut on his knee) , there is an attempt by the Bolognese association to share the fortune of being born in the city of Francesco Rizzoli, “father” of orthopaedics, and there is a desire to pass on skills and train local doctors. «Developing countries have little prevention – Faldini recalled -: there are very seriously ill children who in Italy would be treated as children with orthotics, knee braces, splints; there are also many young people who, due to a poorly treated injury, find themselves in complicated situations for the rest of their lives.” For many years, in Douala, lThe Ortopedici.org association was hosted within the general hospital directed by Dr. Venantius, but the little big revolution came with the shared decision to «give continuity to orthopedic work in a dedicated environment – added Faldini -. Two years ago we identified land near the hospital and helped in the purchase and construction of a four-story hospital totaling 1,600 square meters. From Pianoro, where the association is based, we sent surgical furniture and equipment. They promised us that we would carry out the first intervention this May and so it happened, where we also visited around 150 people”.
The inaugural ceremony
The most serious cases are then operated on, always alongside local doctors. «On the penultimate day, surprisingly, Dr. Venantius organized a real inaugural ceremony with ribbon cutting – Faldini continued -, with tailor-made local traditional clothes”.
The inauguration was therefore an important stage in the history of the association and that of the director, who is “a voluntary professional, not a professional volunteer”. Like the other members of Ortopedici.org, for years more than half of his holidays have been spent on missions like this: «Like on Noah’s Ark, we all leave together – he added -: I started volunteering in 1999, this This year I celebrate my silver wedding.” But nothing will end here: the desire to pass on to the new generations the vocation of being a doctor, orthopedic surgeon and volunteer is very strong. In this latest expedition, «thanks also to the contribution of the Monte Foundation, the Unibo specialists were also able to participate: it was possible to expand the teaching base of the cooperation, to the Medicine specialists but also to the Dams students who created the material documentary”. A profound sense of help that many of the residents were able to begin to appreciate and then carry forward thanks to the professor’s elective course, conducted with Dr. Francesco Traina, «Diseases in developing countries». Behind everything there are therefore relationships of gratitude between people and the value of cooperation; also behind the story of one of the little patients that Faldini and his team were able to see again: he was saved almost by a miracle during birth, with his mother in cardiac arrest, now also in excellent health. They named him Pino the baby, as a sign of thanks to the nurse who brought him to life, Pina Benedetti.
