Mar 6, 2025
Martin Lacher

Kathmandu, Nepal - New deployment country, same mission

Congenital malformations in the gastrointestinal tract can often be surgically corrected without problems – but if they are not, they can lead to severe limitations, infections and pain. Dr. Dietmar Craß, a physician from Tettnang, and his team regularly deal with cases like these during his overseas assignments for the Children's Surgery Foundation.

Kathmandu, Nepal - Neues Einsatzland, gleiche Mission

Dietmar Craß and his team are regularly on the road for the Children's Surgery Foundation. For the first time, they traveled to Kathmandu in Nepal.

Congenital malformations in the gastrointestinal tract can often be surgically corrected without problems - however, if this is not done, they can lead to severe limitations, infections, and pain. Tettnang physician Dietmar Craß and his team regularly address such cases during their assignments abroad for the Children's Surgery Foundation.

Because what is often detected prenatally in Germany, i.e., in the womb, and then operated on immediately after birth, is not nearly as easily treatable in other countries.

In March, anesthetist Dietmar Craß, his wife Carmen Craß, and Melli Graf (both pediatric nurses) traveled to Nepal.

It was the first assignment for the three in Asia, after the foundation's team had been in Africa, Ethiopia, and Guinea-Bissau in previous years. Craß had previously worked as chief physician at the Tettnang Clinic and the Friedrichshafen Clinic, among others, and runs his own anesthesia practice.

A total of 16 children operated on

For a week, he and other volunteer doctors were in the operating room in Kathmandu from early morning until late at night to operate on a total of 16 children. In the country of around 30 million inhabitants, there is only one children's hospital with five pediatric surgeons, reports Dietmar Craß.

The youngest patient in this mission was just two days old, the oldest patient a 14-year-old girl with an ovarian tumor. All the children operated on suffered from malformations of the gastrointestinal tract. "The local colleagues often lack material or the appropriate diagnostic equipment," explains Craß.

The anesthesiologist reports, for example, on a child who suffered complications after an operation some time ago due to a malformation in which a connection from the trachea to the esophagus causes problems. With a so-called bronchoscopy monitor, which the team from Germany brought with them, precise diagnostics and treatment were possible.

The operations lasted up to six hours. "For example, we had a child with a large kidney tumor that was removed," reports Melli Graf. A special feature this time was that many of the children had already undergone preliminary operations and now the main operation was on the agenda. Fortunately, everything went without complications.

Remarkably calm despite stressful situations

Communication with the parents of the young patients was easier than in other missions, such as in West Africa, Carmen Craß and Melli Graf explain. "The children learn English at school there, and the parents usually speak English too," she says. It was striking that there was never any hectic rush: "Even in such situations, the people have a certain inner calm that is difficult to describe," says Carmen Craß.

Children of various social backgrounds were operated on. Since the families only have to pay a small part of the procedure themselves and the rest is covered by the state, care is also possible for poorer families, Dietmar Craß explains. However, signs of malnutrition were visible in some children. "One child had a strikingly empty gaze and totally dull hair," Melli Graf remembers.

For their next mission, the three are to return to Ethiopia in the autumn, where new operating theatres are currently being built through donations from "Ein Herz für Kinder" and are expected to be completed in the autumn, Craß announces.

More deployments

More deployments