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Health Check: Patients More Likely to Die After Surgery in Africa

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2018/01/03 GMT

Patients More Likely to Die After Surgery in Africa

BBC World Service - Health Check, Patients More Likely to Die After Surgery in Africa

Lack of checks on patients after operations to blame

Surgery death rates in Africa are double the global average; University of Jordan hopes to improve image of nursing profession;  are women more at risk of concussion than men?

Twice as many people die during or after surgery in Africa than on average around the world, according to a new study. The patients – from 250 hospitals in 25 countries - fared worse even though they were young and fit and the operations were often minor. Professor Bruce Biccard says that many of the deaths could be prevented – if patients were monitored properly after their operations. 

Despite nursing being a noble profession it is not a well-paid job and in countries like Jordan it has low status. Some families don’t want their offspring to become nurses because tasks like bathing unrelated people - sometimes of the opposite sex – are frowned upon.  As Dale Gavlak reports from Amman, the University of Jordan is working hard to make nursing more of an attractive profession. 

Some researchers believe that women’s brains might be at greater risk of concussion than men if they sustain a head injury playing sport. New research from the Centre for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania has tried to pin down what might be happening.  They found that brain cells from female rats and human stem cells sustained more damage than those of males. 



(Photo: A doctor holding a patient by his wrist during a medical procedure © Getty Images)

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