A Trailblazer for women in medicine and a devoted surgeon to the people of Uganda
After residency training at Ste-Justine Hospital in Montreal and l’Hôpital de la Conception of Marseille, Dr. Lucille Teasdale-Corti dedicated herself to a career in Uganda, together with her husband, Dr. Piero Corti. In addition to practising surgery at St-Mary’s Lacor Hospital, the couple established a school of nursing at the hospital, which went on to train hundreds of Ugandan health care professionals. In addition, Dr. Teasdale-Corti ran a program to train surgical residents at Makerere University in Kampala and also prepared Italian practitioners for service in Africa. During the period of the Ugandan civil war, she operated on wounded from both factions, often under difficult and dangerous conditions; in 1982, she contracted AIDS in the course of an operation.