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Press Releases
Inside Out follows Yorkshire medics on Ethiopian mission
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A team of medics from Yorkshire has just returned from Ethiopia after treating dozens of people with a flesh-eating disease.
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Led by consultant plastic surgeon, Le Roux Fourie, from Methley Park Hospital in Leeds, the doctors and nurses helped to rebuild the faces of 38 people who are the victims of Noma.
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Some of the patients they found at the hospital in Addis Ababa were so badly deformed that they had no lips or noses.
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The full story of the two week trip can be seen on Inside Out today at 7.30pm on 91Èȱ¬ One Yorkshire & Lincolnshire.
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Presenter Jamie Coulson said: "I'd seen pictures of the victims of Noma before but nothing could have prepared me for the reality. These poor people have to struggle through life not only with terrible disfigurement but also as social outcasts.
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"To see them given new faces by this team of incredibly talented surgeons was a truly humbling experience. What these doctors were able to achieve in just two weeks was nothing short of miraculous."
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The victims of Noma start out with an ulcer that rapidly turns into a gangrenous infection.
The disease will affect 130,000 people a year across sub-Saharan Africa, killing most and leaving the survivors with terrible scars and a life of social exclusion.
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The mission to Africa was organised by the charity Facing Africa (see www.facingafrica.org) and comprised a team made up of doctors and nurses from Leeds, London and Holland.
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Consultant plastic surgeon Le Roux Fourie said: "Noma is a disease of poverty that occurs in people who are undernourished, who do not have access to modern medicine.
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"We've seen some pretty horrific things, but that's just the tip of the iceberg - the other 90 percent died.
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"I cannot explain to you the sense of achievement that I've had from this mission. I can honestly say we changed these people's lives. It makes you feel humble and very proud."
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Inside Out, 91Èȱ¬ One Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, Wednesday 14 November 2007, 7.30pm
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91Èȱ¬ Leeds Press Office
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