View a 7-minute video about Lacor Hospital and it's incredible story:
Deep into Africa in a remote corner of Uganda is a hospital that is dear to the hearts of many Quebecers. The Lacor Hospital and the health services it provides for a vulnerable community was kept going for decades by the husband-wife team of Dr. Lucille Teasdale of Montreal and her husband Dr. Piero Corti, both now deceased
"Dr. Teasdale gave her life to this mission hospital," said Claudia Sighomnou, HPIC's Director of International Health Programs, Eastern Region. "Her heroic example was immortalized by the famous Quebec actress Marina Orsini who played the pioneering female surgeon in a movie about her life. HPIC is thrilled to be associated with Dr. Teasdale's hospital and to play a role in her legacy."
The work of Dr. Teasdale and her Italian husband is continuing with the support of the Teasdale-Corti Foundation for the Lacor Hospital near Gulu, Uganda.
HPIC has been partnering with the Teasdale-Corti Foundation for two years. In 2011 HPIC supplied enough basic medicines and supplies to provide more than 28,000 courses of treatment at the hospital.
One of the patients who benefitted from this medicine from HPIC was Omara Lawrence, a one-year-old baby. He has sickle cell disease and is in and out of hospital because of infections. "His mother brought him to Lacor Hospital where he was admitted to the children's ward for a week," stated the report on the medicines from the Teasdale-Corti Foundation. "His joints were swollen and the child was in a lot of pain."
Omara's mother was very grateful to have antibiotics from HPIC to treat her son's infections. He got well enough to leave the hospital and continued recovering with the help of the antibiotics at home. "Luckily Omara is one of thousands of child patients who receive free treatment at St. Mary's Lacor Hospital," stated the foundation's report. "Thanks to donations from organizations like Health Partners International of Canada, treatment is affordable for the poor patients in this region."
HPIC provided 14 skids of hypertension medicines, multivitamins and supplies in 2012.
To view an excellent 3-minute video that aired on CBC Radio Canada's Une heure sur terre in 2011 about the life of Dr. Teasdale go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81CkgSRCPAo