Yorkshire surgeon changes lives

PLASTIC surgeon Le Roux Fourie has returned to Yorkshire from Ethiopia where he helped perform life-changing reconstructive surgery to the faces of victims of disease and injury.

By The Newsroom

Published 3rd May 2010, 01:35 BST

Updated 3rd May 2010, 01:35 BST

The specialist, based at the Nuffield Health Hospital in Leeds, took 260 kilos of specialist kit donated by hospitals and companies across Britain to the capital Addis Ababa, with a team of surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

The team set up a temporary clinic within a hospital to assist local surgeons and completed 52 operations in just nine days.

They treated a number of conditions affecting the face, focusing in particular on NOMA, a rapidly progressive and debilitating gangrenous infection, rife in Ethiopia.

Successful treatment of the disease means patients can regain normal facial functions such as speaking, eating and smiling.

Mr Fourie said: "We're

planning another trip late in 2011 with a solely Leeds-based team. We want to...change the futures of as many people as possible."

The two-week trip was filmed by the BBC for a documentary with presenter Ben Fogle to be shown this summer.