Watson Maina

During internship I came to Kijabe, I scrubbed in theatre, I had excellent teachers, and I fell in love with surgery. I totally fell in love with surgery.

The ability to take someone who is broken, and someone who has been taken out of society because of one issue or another, and then you go into theatre and fix the problem, and they can plug back in. Especially in orthopaedics, they’re not walking, you fix the fracture, and the next day they’re walking and able to go back to work. I fell in love with that, I fell in love with the impact on every patient that comes our way.

You see, I believe it’s the bad outcomes and the negative things in your workplace that really flesh out your character. You don’t escape complications, you don’t hide it from the family members, you don’t cover up anything. But you do your best, and you make sure the patient is getting the best possible care, and that’s what I saw from him.

It shook me because, wow, these patient’s lives are in our hands, but sometimes they come very sick. I also saw that it’s possible for you do the best you can, and trust God for the outcome.

Families will appreciate the human element of a doctor. You are scientist, but they need a human being to explain to them what is going on, to make them feel comfortable and confident in what you have done, that there is nothing that you’ve done wrong and what is going on is even something you are burdened by, you don’t just brush it off and go on to the next patient.

Friends of Kijabe – That’s a good answer. Are there certain surgeries that are your favorite?

Watson – I like to do trauma. Trauma has the highest (patient) satisfaction rating, and also the highest need. It is quickly becoming one of the top-five causes of mortality and morbidity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Surgical disease is overtaking Malaria, HIV, all these communicable diseases combined. And there are so few trauma surgeons.

Of course, I love doing arthroplasty, it is the second most satisfactory surgery in the whole world after cataract surgery.

Friends of Kijabe – You mean satisfactory in the way it changes a patient’s life.

Watson – The kind of impact it has on people’s life is significant. It changes life on the patient side.

Cataract surgery is number one, you can blind and now you can see.

Hip surgery is number two, you could not walk and now you can walk.

Friends of Kijabe: What do you feel like are your biggest motivations as a physician?

Watson: What I feel really drives me is that I believe I was put in Kijabe for a reason.

I believe very heavily in God’s direction and in God’s calling.

I believe I’m called to be a doctor, and not just that, I believe I’m called to be a doctor specifically in Kijabe. Every time I interact with a patient, and every time I discharge somewhere home, in my mind and in my heart, I get the confirmation that this is where I’m supposed to be, this is what I’m supposed to be doing.

Second after that is the satisfaction of helping people, I love helping people in an area that I’m skilled and knowledgeable in. That gets me out of bed in the morning; I know there is someone in need and I know how I can help, so I go and do it.

Having an impact in the community and in the nation is also part of my motivation.