Dr. Massimo Del Bene is a renowned plastic surgeon who specializes in hand surgery. He was the first doctor in Italy to operate on both hands at a time. Dr. Massimo Del Bene succeeded in restoring the functionality of hands amongst others by repairing the nerve tracts.
The 66-year-old doctor from Monza has operated on numerous refugees who had been tortured in Libyan camps. Del Bene was horrified to discover that refugees in the camps in Libya are tortured on hands and feet with the cruelest methods to extort money from relatives and friends. They are intentionally mistreated in such a way that survivors feel the consequences with every step and every movement. Massimo Del Bene speaks of medieval torture methods and keeps a long and sad list of x-rays as evidence.
People talking about migrants who allegedly have no reasons to flee makes the confessed Christian as angry as the fact that the member states of the European Union let refugees drown in the Mediterranean or criminalize sea rescuers. He considers the fact that migrants are brought back to Libya intolerable due to the situation in the Libyan camps.
In order to increase the chances of success for recovery of the hands, it is important that surgery is done as soon as possible after the injury occurred. Unfortunately, refugees often have to stay in the camps for months or even years. If they survive the crossing to Italy, they can then be treated by specialists like Dr. Del Bene.
Massimo Del Bene dreams of building a specialist hospital for children who were injured in wars. Treating war injuries is generally effected as emergency care and often, amputations are the only option. But the state of modern surgery offers many more options that can prevent amputations. As surgeons cannot travel to war zones such as Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, it would be of crucial importance to transfer the children to Italy. Specific plans have already been developed with experts from Lombardy who are willing to work in the new War Children Hospital as volunteers. IT is envisaged that the War Children Hospital moves into the old hospital building in Legnano. Dr. Del Bene is also in contact with UNICEF. The planned War Children Hospital is urgently dependent on donations.
The KU Shalom prize will be awarded on April 25, 2020 at 7.30 p.m. in the Holzersaal of the Eichstätt Sommerresidenz. The laureate will talk about his work with people who were tortured in Libyan refugee camps and the planned War Children Hospital on April 24, 2020 also at 7.30 p.m.
The concluding service will be held on April 26, 2020, at 10.45 a.m. in the Salesianum in Eichstätt. The opening service will be held on Saturday, February 2, at 10.45 a.m., also in the Salesianum.
Donate for the project using the reference ‘Shalompreis 2020’ - Katholische Hochschulgemeinde, Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Bayern Mitte eG, IBAN: DE 34721608180109620320
