GUILD OF BENEVOLENCE
of
The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology

A Success Story

On 28 September 1998, Engr Benjamin Olu Aladenusi AMIMarE, who worked for the National Maritime Authority of Nigeria, was filling his car with petrol at a service station in Lagos. The lighting failed and a stranger ran over with a lighted candle to offer help. In the resulting fire, Benjamin’s car was burnt out and he himself received what were described as 60% superficial burns.

Benjamin spent the following very painful eight months in the Railway Hospital, Lagos, while the burns healed. During this time he was helped by the Institute of Engineers in Nigeria, but all of his savings were spent on his care and the welfare of his wife and his four children, all under nine years of age. When he left hospital the scars on his right leg had locked the knee joint, thus preventing him from walking properly, and the scars on his hands and arms prevented him gripping correctly. As a result he was only able to undertake some casual work.

As there are no facilities in Nigeria for the corrective and reconstructive treatment that he needed, he was referred in May 1999 by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital to the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex. No reply came back from the hospital and thus in August 1999 he wrote to the Guild of Benevolence seeking help.

The Guild of Benevolence contacted the McIndoe Surgical Centre at the Queen Victoria Hospital. Details and photographs of Benjamin’s injuries were sent to Mr Nicholas Parkhouse DM MCh FRCS, a Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, who agreed that he could reconstruct Benjamin’s right leg and both hands. It was anticipated that the total time required would be between two and a half and three months, and would involve at least two spells in hospital with follow up dressing changes and physiotherapy.

As there are no National Health agreements between Britain and Nigeria, the treatment would have to be paid for privately. With the Guild’s help in seeking means of payment, and a lot of effort put in by Benjamin and much correspondence between the McIndoe Surgical Centre and the Nigerian National Maritime Authority, eventually the Nigerian Ministry of Transport agreed to pay the surgical and hospital fees. The money had to be transferred to the McIndoe Centre before the British High Commission in Lagos would issue a visa for Benjamin. A local social and welfare club in Benjamin’s home town agreed to pay for his airfare and the Guild of Benevolence agreed to pay for his accommodation in the Moat House guest house in East Grinstead, as well as his daily living expenses.

The arrangements took about nine months to put in place, and Benjamin should have arrived at Gatwick Airport on 14^th June this year. However, political demonstrations and protests over fuel prices in Lagos meant a further delay and it was on the morning of Friday 16^th June that Benjamin limped out of Gatwick Airport to be met by David Cusdin and Stan Mole from the Guild of Benevolence. He was taken straight from the airport to the Moat House and then to the McIndoe Centre for his first appointment with Mr Parkhouse, just three hours after his plane landed. After undergoing various medical tests, his first and longest operation, to his right leg and right arm, took place on 28^th June. He was out of hospital and starting to walk on 8^th July. On 1^st August he was back in hospital again for the second operation, this time to his left arm, but this time it was only for three days. Benjamin became a familiar sight walking around East Grinstead in shirt and shorts with both legs and both arms in bandages which protected not only the new skin grafts, but also the wounds where the donor grafts were taken. Every few days he returned to the McIndoe Centre for fresh dressings and checks.

During his stay, Benjamin made great use of the Marine Information Centre by borrowing books for study and keeping in touch with his world wide contacts. Each weekend several friends and relations visited him from all parts of the UK as well as from France and the Netherlands. The opportunity was also taken for him to visit 80 Coleman Street for a Professional Review to progress his application for transfer to the grade of Member IMarE.

Benjamin visited the Guild office on 29^th August 2000 to meet some of the Guild Committee and Karen Starr the Guild administrator. That afternoon he had his last appointment at the McIndoe Centre when he was finally discharged as fit to return to Nigeria. On Thursday 31^st August, just eleven weeks after he arrived and 23 months after his accident, David Cusdin and Stan Mole saw him off from Gatwick Airport. It was a pleasure to see him walk briskly through the airport eager to return to his family and to restart his life.

It is true to say that without the help provided by the Guild of Benevolence, Benjamin would still be crippled and unable to work.

McIndoe Surgical Centre

Sir Archibald McIndoe originally established the treatment of burns patients at the Queen Victoria Hospital in 1939. Sir Archibald was a New Zealander who had recently become Consultant in Plastic Surgery to the Royal Air Force. During the Second World War many severely burned and injured servicemen were treated at the Queen Victoria Hospital, and both the Canadian and American Governments provided equipment and funds because of the large number of airmen treated from those countries.

In 1995, the specialist burns unit moved to a new location on the hospital site, which was officially opened by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. The McIndoe Surgical Centre, which now occupies the site of the Old Burns Unit, has been developed to provide a private patient facility specialising in many forms of plastic surgery.

Mr Nicholas Parkhouse DM MCh FRCS has fifteen years experience of plastic reconstructive surgery, nine years of which has been at consultant level. He has been Editor of the British Journal of Plastic Surgery since 1997 and is a member of several British and International Associations.

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