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Lucille Teasdale-Corti

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Lucille Teasdale-Corti
Born(1929-01-30)January 30, 1929
DiedAugust 1, 1996(1996-08-01) (aged 67)
Known forSurgeon and international aid worker

Lucille Teasdale-Corti, CM, GOQ (January 30, 1929 – August 1, 1996) was a Canadian physician, surgeon and international aid worker, who worked in Uganda and contributed to the development of medical services in the country.

Early life in Canada

Born in Montreal, Quebec on 30 January 1929, Lucille Teasdale was the fourth of seven children. Her father René ran a grocery in Guybourg [1].

She was educated by nuns whose methods she thought to be very strict.[citation needed] A visit to the college by some nuns who had worked as missionaries in China acted as a catalyst for her, then aged 13, to consider becoming a doctor [2].

She attended medical school at the Université de Montréal, graduating in 1955 and going on to work at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine in the same city. At the end of six years of training, she had to take her surgeon's examinations, a condition of doing which was that she must agree to work for a period of time in a hospital abroad.

Lucille tried to apply in the USA but her gender inhibited gaining a post [3]. This remained in her mind as she had always fought for justice; in fact, she had thought that being a doctor would enable her to overcome the most evident of injustices, illness [4].

She met a young Italian doctor, Piero Corti, in Montréal. He was in Canada to obtain his specialization in pediatrics, to add to those in radiology and neuro-psychiatry which he already had. Corti showed an interest in her but Lucille was concentrating on her job, working up to 16 hours a day and sometimes fainting in the operating theater as a consequence[5].

France

In September 1960 Lucille travelled to France to work at the de la Conception hospital, where she became highly regarded even though she lacked confidence in her own abilities[6].

She was glad to leave Quebec, because she looked down on Canadian health system and it seemed immoral to her the fact that there were a private medicine and a public one, that rich patiens and poor one were not treated in the same way. She thought indeed that medicine was so interesting that doctors should pay for their honor to practise it [7].

There in Marsiglia she received an offer that would change her life: doctor Corti asked her to leave with him to be a surgeon in Africa and she accepted. Lucille would help him for a couple of months to start a surgical ward in Lacor Hospital, a small village of Acoli tribe 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from Gulu, city where they arrived after the landing in Entebbe, guided by Brother Toni Biasin, a combonian missionery who showed them the dispensary ruled by combonian nuns as nurses and midwives.

It was made of a surgery and at least 40 maternity beds and there Lucille started a bright career: on 10 June 1961 she did her first operation [8]. Lucille and Piero, who were falling in love, got married in the little hospital chapel on 5 December 1961 and on 17 November 1962 Lucille gave birth to their daughter Dominique [9].


Hard work at Lacor Hospital

Her work as a surgeon was very hard, in addiction to her campaign to train local people. She was capable of educating Acoli mothers, who were victims of superstition and ignorance and killed their babies with ebino, an infection to the lower gum [10].

One year later their arrrival in Uganda, former British protectorate gained indipendence on 9 October 1962; there were years of cruel clushes and the winward of dictators like MIlton Obote and Amin Dada. Between 1971 and 1979 victims were more than 300.000. During the civil war the hospital were plenty of people wounded in the struggles and Lucille in order to prevent lack of medical staff, had to work for many hours a day, being actually a "war surgeon" [11].

She stayed at the hospital for 34 years, doing more than 13.000 operations. It was in 1979 that Lucille did her first bone graft to a wounded soldier; she did everything to avoid amputation [12].

Illness and War

It was during an operation that Lucille contracted HIV virus, almost unknown at that time, often confused with slim disease because of common symptoms. She began to sicken frequently: fever, caugh, Herpes Zoster and a bad weight loss. When she realize about her illness, her husband Piero took her to a specialist, doctor Anthony Pinching, worldwide famous immunologist who worked in London [13]. However, despite sufferings due to various diseases typicalof the syndrome, Lucille continued her work in the surgery, even for 7 hours a day, intensifying her therapy at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. With her husband managed to improve AIDS knowledge in Lacor Hospital helped by doctor Carswell, one of the best specialist of HIV in Africa [14].


Last years

Her tireless work in Uganda which contributed to enlarge the hospital, that gained 465 beds for the patients, gave her many awards coming from worldwide important associations; even the United Nations sent her a letter og congratulations on her work [15].

Won by atrocious sufferings- she weighe just 33 kg [16]- she died in Besana in Brianza, where she had recently moved, on 1 August 1996, when she was 67 [17].



Honours

  • In 1986, she and her husband were awarded the World Health Organization's Sasakawa Health Prize, "given to one or more persons, institutions or nongovernmental organizations having accomplished outstanding innovative work in health development, in order to encourage the further development of such work". [1]
  • In 1990, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
  • In 1995, she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.
  • In 1999, Canada Post issued a 46-cent stamp in her honour.
  • In 1999, Parc Lucille-Teasdale in Montreal was named in her honour.
  • In 2001, she was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
  • In 2001, Lucille-Teasdale secondary school in Blainville, Quebec was built and it has been named in her honour.

References

  1. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.48
  2. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.49
  3. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.22
  4. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.23
  5. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.18
  6. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.59
  7. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.62
  8. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.72
  9. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.131
  10. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.122
  11. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.179
  12. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.213
  13. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.226
  14. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.229
  15. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.318
  16. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.323
  17. ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.327

Bibliography

  • Arseneault (1999). Un sogno per la vita Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea (in Italian). Torino: Paoline Editoriale Libri. {{cite book}}: Text "9788831517829" ignored (help)
  • "Lucille Teasdale". Retrieved 2006-01-26.
  • Cowley, Deborah (2005). Lucille Teasdale: Doctor of Courage. XYZ Publishing. ISBN 1-894852-16-8.
  • Famous Canadian Physicians: Dr. Lucille Teasdale at Library and Archives Canada

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