Newswise — Dr. Richard Kaul of New Jersey Spine and Rehabilitation recently began a medically focused charity known as The Spine Africa Project. This non-profit focuses on aiding the extremely high incidence of spine injuries in the Eastern Congo.

This organization was formed in 2008 after Dr. Kaul was invited to the Congo to attend the opening of a friends orphanage. While in Congo, Dr. Kaul was given the opportunity to tour the local clinics where he noticed that many patients within the clinic were suffering from life threatening spine injuries. When he inquired to the local doctors as to how these young men and women were being treated the answer he was given was staggering. They were not treated at all. Due to a lack of education and resources within Congo, provisions for spine surgeries did not exist. Even more disturbing was the fact that those with spine injuries were discharged and returned to their villages where there life expectancy was just a few months. At that very moment, The Spine Africa Project began.

Since 2008, Dr. Kaul has made 3-4 trips per year to Bukavu in the Eastern Congo to perform life saving spine surgeries for those injured. "Unlike most medical charities we do not have the funding of a major hospital or health organization nor a dedicated team of medical personnel." says Daniel Goldberg, Director of Charitable Resources. "As it stands now this project simply entails Dr. Kaul and his co-surgeon, John Woods, traveling to the Panzi Hospital to perform these procedures."

The occurrence of spinal injuries seems to have proliferated within the Congo for several reasons. For men, the main culprit seems to be the extremely dangerous and unregulated conditions within the vast mines of Congo. This area of the world has been endowed with a tremendous amount of natural resources including tin, tantalum and tungsten. However, this endowment has made the Congo incredibly attractive to those looking to exploit the resources and lack of governance. These mines are the same ones that have been the subject of an international humanitarian crisis referred to as The Conflict Mining Crisis. The conditions in these mines are below even the lowest working standards. Men work in unsupported mining fields for 16 hours per day with no semblance of safety equipment or standards. Collapses within the mine or extreme injuries to the back and spine are all too common.

For women the contributing factors are just as great. Many women have been the victims of physical abuse and torture at the hands of the countless militias that occupy the Congo. These gruesome abuses often result in not only emotional but physical traumas as well.

For those lucky enough to escape the violence and enter into the workforce traditionally work in the agricultural field. Generally, this means spending long hours in a field hunched over picking various grains and beans. After this daily toiling has been completed the women are then charged with carrying these goods in 200lb satchels on their backs to market. In most cases, market is 5-6 miles away. Not surprisingly, the spinal degeneration this causes is so advanced that many women in their twenties have the spinal pathology of someone in their eighties. Many walk or stand with a noticeably curved hunch.

For children, the lack of pre-natal screenings and care has led to a high rate of complications that have been all but eradicated in the Western world including, Tuberculosis, Spina Bifida and HIV.

Despite the need for modalities to treat these conditions in the Congo, none yet exist. The Congo scores last out of 187 on the United Nations indexes of living conditions and has been plagued with internal struggle as well as violence at the hands of rebel groups from neighboring countries. These deficiencies have also influenced the medical education system within the country. Most physicians focus on general medical care or gynecological services and receive no education in the field of spine injuries.

"The most important element to this project may be the education of the local physicians," says founder and surgeon Dr. Richard Kaul. "We can not be on the ground 365 days per year but these injuries occur everyday. For this project to be a self-sustaining one the focus needs to be on education so the doctors are able to treat these injuries when we are not in Congo."

The conditions at Panzi Hospital have fallen into a state of disrepair. Within the hospital electricity and water are intermittent which makes for considerable safety and sterilization issues. "During one case, the electricity in the hospital cut off and we had to manually ventilate the patient for 20 minutes before the electricity was restored," recalls Dr. Kaul.

The teams next trip is planned for September 2012 where they will perform over 20 operations. "It is always incredible when we arrive at Panzi Hospital. Word of our arrival must spread and we usually have about 150 - 200 patients outside the clinic waiting to be seen. Many of whom have come from over 100 miles away through whatever means they were able to travel," says Kaul.

As of today this project is mostly self-funded with the help of a few grassroots fundraisers to help maintain costs. "One of the biggest factors is the cost associated with this program. Travel to Congo alone can be upward of $20,000," says Goldberg. "Also, we have to factor in the equipment necessary to perform these advanced procedures and how we can manage to procure them. Thankfully, we have gotten the material support of some medical device companies and some financial support from a close group of family and friends. However, the great majority of these trips are self-funded."

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