Dr. Samuel Bangura

Dr. Samuel Bangura is a general and paediatric surgeon at Ola During Children's Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone's dedicated national children's hospital and a facility that manages surgical emergencies in children alongside paediatric medical conditions. He is one of Sierra Leone's few surgeons with formal WACS Fellowship and additional paediatric surgical training, making him an invaluable resource in a country where both adult and paediatric surgical access is severely limited. Over 18 years of surgical practice, Dr. Bangura has operated on thousands of patients — children and adults — presenting with the full spectrum of surgical emergencies encountered in West Africa: appendicitis, typhoid intestinal perforation, bowel obstruction, intussusception, hernias, traumatic injuries, and burns. His practice at Ola During Children's Hospital covers paediatric surgery, but he also contributes surgical capacity at Connaught Hospital for adult emergency cases when needed. He is fluent in English and Krio, and he is known among colleagues for his calm and decisive surgical decision-making under the resource pressures that characterise Sierra Leone's operating theatres.

Dr. Bangura completed his MBBS at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) in Freetown. He trained as a surgeon through the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) programme, completing the full surgical residency and attaining FWACS in General Surgery — the highest surgical credential recognised across West Africa. He subsequently undertook a paediatric surgery certificate programme through the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), gaining exposure to paediatric surgical techniques and paediatric anaesthesia principles relevant to his work at Ola During Children's Hospital. He has attended surgical skills training workshops supported by Operation Smile, Mercy Ships, and the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons, all of which have conducted training programmes in Sierra Leone.

Dr. Bangura's surgical practice encompasses the full range of emergency and elective abdominal surgery in both paediatric and adult patients. His paediatric surgical workload at Ola During includes intussusception reduction (both pneumatic and operative), appendicectomy in children, pyloromyotomy for hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, repair of inguinal hernias and undescended testes, and bowel resection for Hirschsprung's disease and other congenital conditions. His general surgical emergency work covers typhoid intestinal perforation — a major cause of surgical mortality in Sierra Leone — laparotomy for bowel obstruction, appendicectomy, hernia strangulation, and penetrating abdominal trauma. He performs colostomy formation and reversal and manages complex wound care including burns and traumatic soft tissue injuries. He operates within Sierra Leone's significant anaesthetic and consumable constraints, applying damage control and resource-adapted surgical principles.

Dr. Bangura has contributed to surgical audit data submitted to WACS and has presented case series data on typhoid intestinal perforation outcomes at Sierra Leone and WACS regional meetings. He has collaborated with visiting surgical researchers from UK-based academic institutions that maintain partnerships with Connaught Hospital and Ola During Children's Hospital. His data on paediatric intussusception management in a low-resource setting has contributed to COSECSA's curriculum development for paediatric surgical training in the region.

Ola During Children's Hospital and Connaught Hospital serve as the surgical reference points for the entire Sierra Leone population and for patients referred from Guinea and Liberia for surgical care not available in their home countries. Dr. Bangura is the surgeon most likely to be consulted for paediatric surgical emergencies involving international NGO workers' children based in Freetown. International health workers or volunteers who sustain surgical conditions during their posting in Sierra Leone may also be assessed by Dr. Bangura at Connaught's surgical department. For complex cases requiring specialist paediatric surgical investigation or subspecialty care, he coordinates evacuation to Accra, Dakar, or the UK.

Dr. Bangura's Fellowship of the West African College of Surgeons is the primary recognition of his surgical expertise. The Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association has recognised him for his exceptional contribution to surgical care in a country with severe specialist shortages. International surgical organisations including Mercy Ships and Operation Smile have acknowledged his cooperation in training workshops and his openness to sharing his clinical experience with visiting surgical teams. Colleagues at Ola During Children's Hospital credit him for keeping the hospital's surgical service operational through periods of extreme resource scarcity.