'Safe, warm' hands help Botswana farmer walk again

GABORONE, Botswana — Living in Matsitama village in eastern Botswana, Ketsetletse Mosi, 78, staggered on the road after undergoing surgery 20 days ago. He said it was a Chinese doctor who helped him walk again.

Mosi was rounding up goats on a chilly evening earlier last month when he fell and broke his hip. "Little did I know that the injury was serious because I struggled to wake up the following morning," he said.

He was later sent to Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown, Botswana's second-largest city, where a group of Chinese doctors work. After arriving at the hospital, Mosi said he was received by Chinese doctor Lyu Peimin, whose hands are "safe and warm".

Lyu is a member of the 16th Chinese medical team to Botswana. Over the past four decades, a total of 16 batches of more than 500 Chinese medical professionals have come to the country to administer medical care to the locals. They have performed more than 130,000 surgeries and treated over 2.8 million patients since the 1980s, winning praise from the government and the people.

Lyu showed Mosi a computerized tomography scan and tried to comfort him by saying that the pain he was feeling would disappear. "He then studied the scan and took me to an operating theater to perform an implant of the broken hip bone," Mosi said.

Since then, Lyu started teaching Mosi to walk, and the elderly man made good progress with Lyu's help. Mosi said many people could not believe that he was able to walk again.

"This Chinese doctor is very important. I wish he will remain working here in Botswana forever," Mosi said.

'Bringing hope'

Kobamelo Motshidisi, clinical manager at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital, said the contribution of Chinese doctors has been affirmed by the locals. "In the past, patients at this hospital with similar injuries would spend months and months in the health facility," he said, adding that some patients with similar injuries would never walk again.

Some people chose to seek treatment in neighboring South Africa, however, at a heavy cost, as Botswana does not have sufficient medical professionals.

After Chinese doctors came to the country, Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital was able to perform complex surgeries, Motshidisi said.

Modiri Jojo Lucas, deputy mayor of the Francistown City Council, praised the mutual respect between Botswana and China, saying that the world's second-largest economy has been helping the southern African country in many areas.

"Having them in the city brings hope to our people," Lucas said. "We ought to say thank you to China."

Xinhua