Strengthening Healthcare in Conflict Zones: Dr. Lundy Campbell and the ICRC in Ethiopia

Lundy Campbell, MD is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at UCSF. He is on a deployment from March to June 2024 with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, which is recovering from a devastating internal conflict that occurred between 2020 and 2022. The violence shattered an already overrun local healthcare system that was unprepared for the volume of patients in need of urgent critical care.

Dr. Campbell will be serving in an advisory and teaching role, working with local providers from up to five different hospitals in the area to strengthen capacity and clinical care of weapon wounded patients. ICRC estimates that 5,000 of 15,000 patients in these hospitals are weapon wounded patients who require surgery right now. Dr. Campbell will work one-on-one with local healthcare providers. These are predominantly nurses who are currently providing ketamine-based anesthesia but are transitioning to the use of modern anesthetics, with support from ICRC Ethiopia who is securing equipment and training providers. Dr. Campbell will work with ICRC colleagues to provide educational and advisory support in other areas including how to treat phantom limb pain, which is rampant with many extremity injuries; how to save extremities from amputations; and if they proceed with amputations, working with other providers to provide rehabilitation and proper prosthetics. He will be teaching as much ultrasound guided regional anesthesia for extremity wounds as possible.

Dr. Campbell is grateful to the UCSF School of Medicine and Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care for their support for his deployment. He will be sharing learnings and updates with the CHESA community in the coming months.