Medacta for Life Foundation and Medacta International support Afric-Ortho – a humanitarian organisation founded in 2019 by Arnaud Lemercier and Dr. Nicolas Riand (orthopaedist), later joined by Dr. Christophe Sadowski (orthopaedist) and Dr. Grégoire Zen-Ruffinen (anaesthetist).
History of the organisation: the above-mentioned team has been active in the humanitarian field on orthopaedic surgery missions well before 2019 in Cameroon. Medacta Int. has supported the missions organised by Lemercier and Dr. Riand since 2011 (here in the Petté Hospital – Cameroon section), with the provision of many hip prostheses – twelve on the first mission in 2011 and another fifteen for 2012 and 2013 missions.
Faced with an extremely uncertain political situation in the north of Cameroon and in order to continue their orthopaedic missions, Dr. Riand and Lemercier made contact with an organisation from Fully, in Valais, involved in the development of Galagala Hospital (city of N’Gaoundal, central Cameroon), where they continued to perform orthopaedic surgeries.
They founded Afric-Ortho in 2019, whose main aim was to be independent from other entities and most of all to remain flexible on the destination of missions depending on needs and geopolitical situation.
The first Afric-Ortho mission supported by Medacta for Life Foundation to the Galagala Hospital took place in autumn 2019.
2020 and 2021 missions were cancelled because of COVID, and subsequently resumed in autumn 2022.
Afric-Ortho team is usually composed of surgeons specialized in hip prosthetics, as well as dentists for primary treatment of dental pathologies. Within the mission, local healthcare personnel receive training on orthopaedic consultations, which is fundamental for the follow-up after surgeries, as well as the prevention of paludisme and nosocomial infections.
