Our Niger Trip: Dr. Holly Richter and Dr. Hannah Chapman
“We landed in Niamey, Niger, before dawn on March 30th, had 3 hours to refresh and then hopped onto a small plane for our journey to the remotely located Danja Fistula Center (DFC),” explained Dr. Holly Richter, Worldwide Fistula Fund Board Secretary and The Endowed Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Accompanied by her UAB Urogynecology Fellow, Dr. Hannah Chapman, Dr Richter was in Niger to work alongside DFC Fistula Surgeon, Dr. Chelsea Porter, who is completing her FIGO Certification. Dr. Porter is cleared to do simple fistula surgeries on her own while continuing her FIGO training.
Drs. Richter and Chapman had multiple goals for the trip: 1) Deliver healing surgical care for 20-30 women awaiting service, 2) Observe & provide feedback for Dr. Porter’s work alongside them on less familiar or more complex childbirth injury procedures, and 3) Revisit the patient data collection system from intake assessment to 6-month post-operative follow-up (set-up previously) with “refresher” system training for Dr. Porter.
From left: Dr. Hannah Chapman, Dr. Chelsea Porter, Dr. Holly Richter
We did patient screening + 6 POP cases in the first 1 1/2 days!
We hit the ground running at DFC and began by assessing patients lined up by Dr. Porter, then we set our surgical schedule with Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) cases scheduled first, to follow most of their post-op recovery.
During this 2-week surgical campaign, the team of Drs. Richter, Chapman and Porter delivered 24 healing surgical transformations for 6 women with POP, 8 with incontinence needing sling procedures and 14 women suffering fistulas.
Dr. Chapman additionally assisted the DFC team by updating patient data (150+) into the system. All of this data is very important and necessary both for reporting back to funding partners and for ongoing clinical and impact analysis.
As a bonus, Drs Richter and Chapman attended the graduation ceremony for 5 women from the vocational-social reintegration program: “This trip really affirms the importance of the work we do. Some women never thought they could be cured. Now, here they are healed AND able to earn income with the skills we taught them!”
Dr. Richter with surgical, anesthesia and nursing team
Dr. Richter with surgical/clinical team
Dr. Richter training
Dr. Richter meeting with fistula patient
