photographer


KARSTEN BIDSTRUP


Médecins sans Frontières



DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS



DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS



On several occasions I've been assigned by the international, medical organisation Doctors Without Borders aka MSF (Médecins sans Frontières).



Magburaka & Makeni



SIERRA LEONE



I was assigned by the Danish branch of Doctors Without Borders to cover five days in the life of the Danish doctors Vibeke Brix Christensen and Torben Bruhn during their stay in Sierra Leone, shortly after the end of the civil war.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



Danish anesthesiologist Vibeke Brix Christensen calms

a women after a long, complicated cesarean section.
This picture was on the cover of Doctors Without Borders worldwide, annual Activity Report and it was also on

the cover of Merete og Mogens Brix Christensen's book

"Tre søskende".



MSF HEADQUARTERS IN MAKENI, SIERRA LEONE



A relaxed and happy face outside MSF's camp in Makeni.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAKENI, SIERRA LEONE



The Danish medical doctor Torben Bruhn outside

the MSF run hospital in Makeni.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAKENI, SIERRA LEONE



A young girl takes a break from the tedious hospital life.

She may think I am the weirdest guy around and she takes her time wondering about who I am...



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAKENI, SIERRA LEONE



A premature baby holding on...



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



Silence fills the operating theater as the Ethiopian surgeon Dr. Mesfin Wondimu performs a cesarean section.
He holds the stillborn baby for the assistant to cut

the umbilical cord.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



Suffering from an unidentified abscesses virus, this boy went to see the local village witch doctor for help.

The witch doctor used a boiling poultice (most likely poisonous) rapped around the boys head, resulting in

the boy losing all his hair and most of his scalp.

After several painfull poultice treatments, the boy was finally admitted to the MSF hospital in Magburaka

for proper treatment.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



An unlucky guy with a very nasty reputation.
He was digging for diamonds when the mine collapsed, leaving him with a severely injured leg.

But when not digging for diamonds, he allegedly played

a nasty part in the civil war - a butchers part.

He was recognized by other patients in the hospital.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



With the head bent forward a man gets an epidural

prior to an operation.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



Ethiopian surgeon Dr. Mesfin Wondimu and an assisting midwife prepares an operation.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



Danish anesthesiologist Vibeke Brix Christensen

and her assistant during an operation.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



Operation in progress. The Danish anesthesiologist

Vibeke Brix Christensen monitors the patient.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



Danish anesthesiologist Vibeke Brix Christensen and her assistant prepares the anesthetic prior to an operation.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



After 18 hours in the operating theater, Ethiopian surgeon Dr. Mesfin Wondimu tries hard to keep his eyes open while finishing the last medical journals.



HOSPITAL PROJECT IN MAGBURAKA, SIERRA LEONE



Danish anesthesiologist Vibeke Brix Christensen

in the hospital during a rare break.



Madhu



SRI LANKA



My planned two-week assignment with Doctors Without Borders in northern Sri Lanka,

covering the work of the Danish midwife Pia Thorsø, came to a grinding halt before it even started.
On my third day in Madhu, both Pia Thorsø and I came down with severe fever

and on day four we were transferred to the General Hospital in Colombo, some 275 km. south of Madhu.
We had been infected with the dreaded Dengue fever, keeping us admitted to the hospital for a week,

which eventually terminated the entire project due to lack of time.



HOSPITAL MATERNITY WARD PROJECT IN MADHU, SRI LANKA



During a part of the devastating civil war Danish midwife Pia Thorsø Graversen was in charge of the hospital's maternity ward in the town Madhu in northern Sri Lanka.

Madhu is situated in the jungle, very close to the frontline that separated the island during the war.



HOSPITAL MATERNITY WARD PROJECT IN MADHU, SRI LANKA



An early morning a child was born in the small hospital

in the jungle town Madhu in northern Sri Lanka, delivered by Danish midwife Pia Thorsø Graversen

(in the background to the right).



HOSPITAL MATERNITY WARD PROJECT IN MADHU, SRI LANKA



The nun, sister Teresa of Madhu, is not holy, nor is she

a saint, but she certainly is a sweet woman.



HOSPITAL MATERNITY WARD PROJECT IN MADHU, SRI LANKA



A brief moment of mindfullness during a very warm day

in the hospuital in Madhu.



HOSPITAL MATERNITY WARD PROJECT IN MADHU, SRI LANKA



No matter the letters - the Sri Lankans know the famous MSF-logo.



Dadaab & Lake Turkana



KENYA



Hagadera refugee camp near Dadaab on the Somali border

is the biggest refugee camp in Africa.



Blanket feeding projecT AT LAKE TURKANA, KENYA



Hoping to get some kind of food at MSF's blanket feeding camp, a boy carries his younger brother across the rocky landscape near Lake Turkana.



Blanket feeding projecT AT LAKE TURKANA, KENYA



A self confident young Turkana girl from nothern Kenya .



HAGADERA REFUGEE CAMP near dadaab, eastern kenya



Kenyan ophthalmologist Dr. Yorston performs a cataract operation in a basic, wooden hut on the savannah

near the Somali border.



HAGADERA REFUGEE CAMP near dadaab, eastern kenya



A nurse anesthetistist preparing for a cataract operation.



Blanket feeding projecT AT LAKE TURKANA, KENYA



A local child from the dusty and remote town Lodwar

in northwestern Kenya.



Blanket feeding projecT AT LAKE TURKANA, KENYA



Turkana people waiting for food outside MSF's camp..


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Photographer Karsten Bidstrup


DANISH travel journalist of the year 2018


All photographic images and video on this website © 2022 Karsten Bidstrup