Outreach to Ethiopia: Upstate otolaryngologists help restore hearing after ear infections
Now they have three daughters and a son, ranging in age from 3 to 10 -- along with a mission to help prevent hearing loss in the kids‘ birth country.
“Over the years it has grown, and what we‘ve been able to accomplish and do has grown,” he says.
The country of Ethiopia has 10 ear, nose and throat doctors, located in the capital city of Addis Ababa, and 4 outside Addis, to look after 85 million people.
Kelley‘s first trip to provide medical care was preceded by a radio announcement. Organizers told him to expect maybe 10 or 15 patients. Instead, about 250 people were there. Some had traveled for days to get there. More than 90 percent had ear disease and hearing loss.
“What we figured out on that very first trip is that although it may feel good to go on a medical trip and treat a couple hundred people, it‘s really just a drop in the bucket,” Kelley says. He wanted to make a bigger, more lasting impact.
When Ethiopians get ear infections, they aren‘t necessarily able to get to doctors for
Woods realized “if we did nothing else but train some of the otolaryngologists there to repair eardrums, that would make a huge different for these people.” So that‘s what he has done.
Kelley, Woods and other physicians become mentors to the physicians from Ethiopia, teaching the fine points of how to examine and diagnose ear disease and hearing loss. They are developing training programs in audiology for hearing testing, and they are supporting surgical training in otolaryngology.
Partners for Global Hearing – the name of their nonprofit – acquires equipment for training and care centers and is working to establish ear/hearing clinics in different zonal capitals. The organization‘s largest expense is for shipping equipment and supplies to Ethiopia. Doctors pay their own travel expenses, and there are no administrative costs.
Woods says he volunteers mostly because “these people are so thankful.”
Kelley feels likewise. “It kind of reinvigorates why we went into medicine in the first place,” he says. “You get there, and it boils down to you and the patient and your ability to help.”
Learn more about Partners for Global Hearing at HLP-Ethiopia.org. HLP stands for Hearing Loss Prevention. The group also has a Facebook presence.
Hear an interview with Drs. Kelley and Woods about their outreach to Ethiopia