Chinese doctor brings relief to rural South Sudanese family

A Chinese doctor specializing in Ear, Nose and Throat treatment with the 12 batch of the Chinese medical team, has helped bring relief to a rural family in South Sudan after enduring months of pain in search for medical treatment.
Chinese Ear, Nose and Throat doctor Wang Chuanxi, (Right) and Dr. Michael Deng Achier (Left) in a group photo on Tuesday with Agustina Juan (2nd Right) a South Sudanese patient in the Juba Teaching Hospital.

By Denis Ejulu

A Chinese doctor specializing in Ear, Nose and Throat treatment with the 12 batch of the Chinese medical team, has helped bring relief to a rural family in South Sudan after enduring months of pain in search for medical treatment.

Viola Kiden Zakaria, a 22- year- old secondary student in the South Sudan capital had since October last year, been moving her sickly mother Agustina Juan, 50, from Mangala village located about 75 km by road to Juba in search of treatment for a tumor in her nose.

Despite moving between several private hospitals, she could not afford the cost of the treatment for her mother, who was feeling immense body pain after catching flu.

Zakaria was informed by doctors at a private clinic, that her mother had a tumor (inverted papilloma), but she could not raise 2,000 U.S dollar for the operation on her mother.

An inverted papilloma is a benign epithelial tumor that grows in the nasal cavity or paranasal sinuses.

In late November 2024, Zakaria on the advice of her associates visited the Chinese medical team at Juba Teaching Hospital alongside her ailing mother, and on reaching the main referral she was introduced to Wang Chuanxi, the ENT specialist doctor with the 12th batch of Chinese medical team.

“The first time I met the Chinese doctor and narrated to him my mother’s condition, he told me to go and bring my mother and when he examined my mother he concluded it was papilloma, and recommended surgery,” Zakaria told The Dawn in Juba on Tuesday.

“When I brought my mother (Juan) to Juba Teaching Hospital she was feeling immense pain on the right side of her head, and she could not sleep, and also she was having smelly discharge from the nose,” she disclosed.

Wang, the ENT doctor together with his South Sudanese counterpart, Michael Deng Achier who received the patient carried immediate tests, and confirmed she indeed had a tumor in her nose and recommended surgical operation.

In addition, they also confirmed she was Diabetic and due to her high blood glucose, they postponed the operation to allow her get treatment aimed at reducing her blood glucose levels to the level required for a successful operation to remove the tumor in her nose.

Wang prescribed medicine for the patient and instructed the patient to make weekly visits to test her blood sugar, prior to the operation which was successfully conducted on January 20, 2025.

“About two months ago, the patient was brought to my department and I performed CT Scan and detected a tumor in her nose, this kind of tumor cannot heal without surgery but this patient has Diabetes, so we tested the blood glucose level and found out that it was 30 milligrams per deciliter, and if the patient needed to undergo the operation the blood glucose needed to be below 8 milligrams per deciliter,” Wang told The Dawn.

Meanwhile, Zakaria expressed relief on seeing her mother’s recovery in the hospital ward where they are staying.

“My mother is now feeling somehow better though, she still feels some little pain. She is now able to eat food and drink without any problem,” she said.

“She used to plough her farm before she fell sick but now with the improvement of her condition, she might go back to village and resume her work,” Zakaria disclosed.

Michael Deng Achier, Medical General Practitioner who treated the patient with Wang at Juba Teaching Hospital, said that in the past three months, Zakaria’s mother was unable to get any drugs for diabetes because of the long distance between Mangala and Juba.

He said that the operation on Monday, took less than one hour to finish, adding that the patient’s recovery is progressing well as she is able to eat and drink.

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