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Professor Mkandawire to give public lecture

Mkandawire: The idea is to share knowledge
Mkandawire: The idea is to share knowledge

Professor Nyengo Mkandawire, head of surgery at the College of Medicine in Blantyre, next Thursday takes an important step in his academic and medical career when he delivers an inaugural public lecture to mark his entry into full professorship.
The lecture, to be held at Comesa International Conference Centre in Blantyre, is a tradition in the University of Malawi (Unima) to honour those who attain the academic post of professor by giving them a chance to speak about their area of expertise.
“The whole idea of this inaugural public lecture is to share knowledge from the academia with the wider world which can be academic people or any other person interested in the topic,” he said.
According to Mkandawire, the lecture will discuss the global burden of surgical diseases and how they impact the world in general and Malawi in particular.
The university used to run inaugural lectures until 2008 when they stagnated and since then those promoted to full professorship have not had a chance to present the lectures.
Mkandawire said he is happy to be the first person to give a public lecture in the revived tradition which will be followed by a series of other lectures.
“Specifically, I want to highlight surgical issues that affect Malawi. The progression of the talk will be a broad perspective of the magnitude of the burden of surgical diseases. These are not just diseases related to bones; it means all the diseases that need operation, be it of the brain or legs,” he said.
Mkandwire, who is a professor of orthopaedics, said he will also touch on the critical shortage of surgeons in Malawi.

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2 Comments

  1. Two years ago, I was in a car accident, I broke and dislocated my spinal cord, C5. I was paralyzed from neck to bottom. Everybody including myself thought I was done, there was no visual prospects that I would ever walk again. Like everybody around, I thought from that moment on that I will be inclined to a wheel chair and maybe a respiratory machine for the rest of my life. Using the very limited resources at queen elizabeth hospital, fueled by the worse economic conditions at that time, Dr Nyengo Mkandawire performed a wonderful operation, he took a borne from my hip joint and fused it on my broken neck borne, then he mounted my head to a hallow for 90 days. He then recommended that I should start physical therapy immediately. With the help of dedicated and compassionate staff at kachere rehabilitation I got out of the hospital without a wheel chair!

    While in the rehab, Dr Mkandawire was checking on my progress every week! for those of you who knows him, he is an extremely busy person and to be able to check the progress of his patients, I can imagine it takes somebody who is thoughtful and has passion in what he does.

    Few month later; I travelled to the USA, because I had to continue with the rehabilitation treatment I met a number of well acclaimed surgeons in Newyork. Upon looking at my x-ray images every doctors initial response was “WOW! where is this guy?!!” shocked at how amazing the procedure was done under the circumstances. They could not believe that with the nature of my injury somebody could perform such an operation and that I could walk again, let alone stand up on my own!!.

    Today I am 100% independent, I can walk very long distances, I am back in class just like any normal student, I can lift heavy weights, I can walk the stairs-sometimes you can not even notice anything!!

    I can vehemently say today that I OWE MY LIFE TO HIM!. These are the kind of people that needs our priority, the people we should treasure most.

    I have tried to reach out to him but my efforts to get his contact details proved futile, let me take this opportunity to reach out to him. If you happen to read my comment, please let him know how much he means to me and my family and if by any chance you know his contact details; please share it with me at (imuwalo@gmail.com)

  2. Nyengo is a very special kind of Doctor.I was once his student, his work ethics, his depth in the field of Orthopaedics can wow everybody, if you could have a chance to know him.God can bless indeed. If the nation would have people to cherish, it can’t be more than him.

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