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CHAPTER 5
gregated in an annexe of his department, polios with the most grotesque deformities
one can imagine, who were sent to him following neglect and inefficient treatment.
Following my visit to his hospital of Makerere University at Kampala, he sent nursing
personnel to Stoke Mandeville for training and care of traumatic paraplegia and tetra-
plegia. A small paraplegic team took part in 1971 and 1972 International Stoke Mandeville
Games. Unfortunately, Professor Huckstep left Uganda to become Professor of Ortho–
paedic Surgery in Sydney, Australia. It remains to be seen whether his work for spinal
cord victims, both medical and traumatic lesions, will be continued.
In Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia, leading members of the medical profession and
administrative authorities have become more and more aware of the need to establish
specialized units for a comprehensive treatment and social resettlement of both trau–
matic and non-traumatic spinal cord lesions at present scattered in orthopaedic or general
surgical departments. However, judging from personal observations and in view of the
political unrest and financial and economic difficulties in some of these countries, it will
take a very long time for a satisfactory solution of this problem. However, Kenya has
made a beginning through the activity of Mr John Britton, a paraplegic himself and one
of the outstanding paraplegic sportsmen in England. Following his visit to Kenya and
negotiations with the Kenyan Government and the Cheshire Home, a spinal unit of
40 beds is being set up by the Kenyan Government for a comprehensive management of
paraplegics and tetraplegics. This unit will also be provided with a hostel for those
patients who, for one reason or another, cannot return to their homes. Kenya was
represented at the 1972 International Stoke Mandeville Games in Heidelberg.
HONG KONG
A small Spinal Unit has been set up in 1965 at the Grantham Hospital, which originally
was designated for patients suffering from tuberculosis of bones and joints. Since 1965,
28 paraplegics and tetraplegics due to other causes as well as 30 victims of tuberculosis
of the spine were treated there. At any one time, the unit was occupied by 20-24 patients.
This unit suffers from the fact that owing to the shortage of doctors in Hong Kong
there is no leader to organize and supervise a comprehensive management of these
patients (Miss Sheila lu, 1968). Recently, a closer relationship has been established for
the training of medical and para-medical personnel between Grantham Hospital and the
units of Dr Bedbrook in Perth and Dr Cheshire in Melbourne, Australia. During my
last visit to Hong Kong in 1971 I was pleased to learn that the setting up of two spinal
units is contemplated. In the meantime, sport for paraplegics has been organized and
Hong Kong has been represented in increasing numbers at the International Stoke
Mandeville Games. Recently two doctors have been sent to Stoke Mandeville for training
and will be in charge of the spinal units after their return to Hong Kong.
INDIA
In recent years, progress in dealing constructively with the ever increasing problem of
spinal paraplegia has been made in various parts of this huge sub-continent, where
