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“Doctor Daniel” returns to South Sudan
Every time Dr. Daniel Madit Duop saves the lives of another mother and her newborn baby by performing an emergency caesarean section, the former Calgarian says it helps to briefly restore life to his own mom. She died during childbirth in 1983, only months after civil war began in their Sudanese homeland.
His terrified family was among hundreds of thousands of people in southern Sudan whose only hope of escaping marauding soldiers was to flee to refugee camps in neighboring Ethiopia.
During their desperate journey, Duop's pregnant mother went into labor. She struggled for two agonizing days amidst the chaos of war to deliver her child before both mother and baby died.
Duop, then 13, vowed to learn whatever was necessary to help other women and babies avoid similar tragedies. He got his opportunity when he and about 600 other young Sudanese were sent to Cuba to be educated as their nation's next generation of leaders.
Duop studied medicine. But as the war in Sudan dragged on, he couldn't return home. He ended up in Canada as a refugee whose foreign-acquired medical training wasn't recognized. After years of working outside of the medical field, Duop obtained help to fulfill his long-awaited mission.
Samaritan's Purse Canada, inspired by Duop's courage and vision, enrolled him and several of his Sudanese medical school classmates, also living in Canada, in a special nine-month training program organized in partnership with the University of Calgary's medical faculty. Then Samaritan's Purse helped arrange residencies for them at several Kenyan hospitals.
Duop completed his residency earlier this year and is now a much-needed doctor at a war-damaged hospital in the dusty city of Malakal, South Sudan.
"We are all very grateful to have Daniel here," says Dr. Gabriel Gatwich, the hospital's director-general. "We are just getting out of a war, when almost everything collapsed. We are starting from zero. The schools have been destroyed. The hospitals have been destroyed. Everything was destroyed. But step by step, we are making changes."
Lasting Impact
Much of Duop's hospital work is in obstetrics and gynecology. He has already performed several life-saving caesarean sections -- a relatively common procedure in North America that would have almost certainly saved his own mother's life.
The quiet-spoken man is becoming known as a skilled surgeon and physician -- so much so that four mothers have named their newborn babies "Doctor Daniel" in a heart-felt tribute to him.
Two faith communities -- churches in Calgary, AB and Oakville, ON, are arranging through Samaritan's Purse to provide funds to restore war-damaged hospital buildings and buy equipment.
John Clayton, Samaritan's Purse Canada's projects director, hopes other churches in Canada will come alongside the recently returned doctors in Sudan to support them.
“Long-term partnerships would benefit all the Sudanese-Canadian physicians," says Clayton. "It can enable church congregations in Canada to have a very real and lasting impact on some of the world's most needy people."
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Pray for wisdom and protection for the physicians as they now serve in remote locations across South Sudan. |  | GiveSupport this project by donating to Sudan Medical Needs Donate Here.
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