Meet Kieran O"Driscoll

'It"s a tragedy to be poor in Zambia, but if you"re deaf and poor you haven"t a hope,' ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) Surgeon Kieran O"Driscoll says as we talk about the charity work that sees him head off to Zambia twice a year for two weeks to use his skills for good. Part of a team that travels over to Zambia, Dr O"Driscoll puts a month of holiday time to use every year now to try and fix ENT problems. 'I"ve done this since 2004,' Dr O"Driscoll says, explaining the beginnings of his charity work. 'In 2003 I decided to have a look at some areas of charity work. When I went on the Internet there was an advertisement for ENT surgeons for Zambia. None of them were actually real, because there"s no real substantial ENT department in the whole country. So I decided to go and have a look at it myself and it evolved from there.' A fragmented service Dr O"Driscoll describes as archaic and cruel, since then some form of relief has been coming to people living in Zambia in the form of the good work Dr O"Driscoll and his team do with financial support from the people of Offaly. A Dubliner by birth, Dr O"Driscoll studied Science prior to going back to college to complete a Medicine degree. Surgical training, ENT training, a post grad scholarship in ENT in California and a year and a half of registrar training in Melbourne followed before Dr O"Driscoll came back to Ireland to take up a post in Tullamore. Here now for 13 years, the kind hearted doctor is happily married in the town with three children. 'I came home and decided to try and do something about it,' Dr O"Driscoll says of returning from his first trip to Zambia. 'I suppose there"s three real heartaches there. Firstly there"s children dying because they can"t get the foreign bodies out of their ears. Then there"s kids who die of chronic ear disease and get brain abscesses and meningitis and die. And then there"s the kids who can"t have their hearing restored because they haven"t got a hearing aid and they can"t get surgery to restore their hearing. So they"re the main elements. 'There is the element of head and neck cancer. Patients die because they can"t get treatment, but fixing that requires a huge input of equipment and manpower, which is the long term goal. I can"t do anything about that right now, but we can certainly fix the kids. 'Education is perhaps the most important thing to try and get them to help themselves in Zambia, and eventually setting up a training scheme is a long term goal. The most important three elements of it all are education of nurses and doctors in ENT, supply of equipment and manpower to get it started. So when I came back I decided to set up a trust fund, because you need money to do anything.' With a lot of goodwill in Offaly, Dr O"Driscoll says the trust fund is successful, and work began very quickly. 'Various charities have been helpful,' he says. 'The Rotary Club took it on board straight away when they saw the presentation I gave them and they were so helpful that I joined the club. And they"ve been very helpful ever since. Gladys Adams has also been very helpful with the fashion show (taking place in The Heritage in Killinard on October 2 next). Dr O"Driscoll"s next trip to Zambia is scheduled for mid-October, but constantly he is planning more and more. 'It"s very tempting to go over and put a year or two into it, but I"ve a young family so I can"t,' he says. 'The more you get into a project the more time and energy it takes. It"s a bit of a strain, but it"s worthwhile. The ball has started to roll and there"s a couple of other people interested in it now. 'There"s a guy who"s retired, an American guy called Jerry Templar, a professor of ENT surgery in Missouri. He"s married to a woman from Zambia. He"s 69, so he"s going to retire over there. He"s visiting me in August and together we"re going to try and get a plan to do something constructive, because you need someone there permanently. With him over there we might have some stronger results. At the moment, about 20 or 30 patients are treated each time the team visits Zambia. The main focus of the work is on children who have chronic ear disease. Doctors in Zambia bring up patients who need the surgery, which is carried out with equipment supplied from Ireland. 'It needs to be replaced actually,' Dr O"Driscoll says of the machines. 'It"s an ongoing process.' 'In addition to that one of the project I started was to set up a mobile ENT clinic out there, and I"m in the process of having that constructed,' Dr O"Driscoll explains, adding that Irish charity Gorta has very kindly sponsored this clinic completely, at a cost of €300,000. Dr O"Driscoll is also a member of the College of Surgeons of Eastern Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), which is trying to improve post graduate surgical training in Zambia helped out by government funding of €400,000. This is something Dr O"Driscoll has high hopes for, as he has already started training for nurses there. He also does surgical work for a German group called Christian Blind Mission in Zambia. Thanking others, Dr O"Driscoll says the SMA Fathers in Zambia have been very helpful. They are opening a new community centre, and Dr O"Driscoll says they are putting in an ENT dental room in the centre where he can see patients. Bonavox and Audio Technology also give reconditioned hearing aids free of charge to the effort. Finally, the Irish Ambassador in Zambia Bill Nolan is particularly good at resolving administrative problems. 'Basically the project is to develop a hospital base, have a mobile clinic, supply the man power to get it started and sort out education,' Dr O"Driscoll says. 'Zambia is a beautiful country. But it"s poverty stricken and it a lot of corruption and mis-appropriation as any African country. With the plan that we have for ENT I think that there will be a way forward with a view to becoming self sufficient with ENT surgeons,' Dr O"Driscoll concludes. Anyone who would like to help by giving money to the ENT for Zambia Trust Fund should look out for fundraising taking place in Offaly. The next fundraiser - a night of style and fashion courtesy of Gladys Adams - takes place in The Heritage in Killinard on October 2. Alternatively, you can make a donation to the ENT for Zambia Trust Fun account at Bank of Ireland, O"Connor Square, Tullamore, to account number 16766000.