Dr. Emmanuel Wegoye on Excellence, Compassion, and Living Your Faith

What does it look like to dedicate your life to healing children—and to do it with extraordinary skill, deep humility, and unwavering faith?

In this episode of CURE Conversations, Liz Bohannon sits down with Dr. Emmanuel Wegoye, a pediatric neurosurgeon at CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda. Dr. Emma shares his remarkable journey from growing up in Uganda after losing his father at a young age, to becoming one of the country's leading neurosurgeons, helping care for children with life-threatening conditions like hydrocephalus, spina bifida, epilepsy, and brain tumors.

Together, Liz and Dr. Emma explore the life-changing impact of pediatric neurosurgery, why early treatment can mean the difference between life and death, and how CURE Uganda has become a global leader in treating hydrocephalus. They also discuss the often-overlooked emotional and spiritual needs of families, particularly mothers who arrive carrying fear, stigma, and heartbreak.

Most of all, this conversation is about calling. Dr. Emma shares how CURE's discipleship program transformed the way he sees his work—not simply as a profession, but as an opportunity to serve God and others through the gifts he's been given.

Show Note Links

Join Club CURE: https://www.cure.org/club-cure

More About CURE Uganda: https://uganda.cure.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Well, hey everybody, and welcome to Cure Conversations. I'm your host, Liz Bohanan. Our guest today is Dr. Emmanuel Wagoye, a pediatric neurosurgeon and the medical director at Cure Children's Hospital of Uganda. He is leading one of the most impactful pediatric neurosurgery programs in the entire world. In this conversation, Dr. Emma shares his extraordinary journey of growing up in Uganda, raised by a single mom, to becoming one of only a handful of neurosurgeons in the entire country to now helping care for thousands of children with life-threatening neurological conditions like hydrocephalus and spinobifida. Dr. Emma's humility, his deep and profound faith, the way that he talks about caring not only for children, but also for mothers who often arrive to these hospitals carrying not only a sick child, but also so much fear and shame and hopelessness. It really deeply inspired and challenged me. And I think it's going to do the same for you. But before we jump in, I want to give a huge shout out to our incredible club cure community. Because of the faithful generosity of thousands of you who are giving together each month, children around the world are receiving life-changing, life-saving surgeries that they would otherwise not have access to. And what you'll hear in today's episode is that your support doesn't just help provide surgeries, it is creating places of dignity, healing, compassion, and hope for entire families and communities. If you're interested in joining us and being a part of Club Cure, just click the link in the show notes. Now, without further ado, here is my conversation with the extraordinary Dr. Emmanuel. Dr. Emma, thank you so much for being with us here on the show today. I'm really looking forward to getting to know you more, hearing more about your story, and learning about the incredible work happening at Cure Uganda.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Thank you, Liz, for the invitation. It's great just uh being here and talking to you about uh what God is doing at Cure Uganda.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Will you start off by sharing a little bit of your story, maybe a little bit of your background? Where did you grow up? When you were a little kid, did you have any inkling and idea that you would grow up to be a casual neurosurgeon?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah, Liz, that's a very interesting question. And uh going back into time, I'm the 50th born of nine children. Um lost my dad at the age of six, seven.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So sorry.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Raised by a single mom. Uh, she did a pretty good job uh at taking us to school. In my high school, I um I think I decided I wanted to be a doctor and work towards achieving that goal. And by the grace of God, I um met uh uh a German sponsor who paid for my education through medical school. Wow, uh and uh that was a gift from God. And while in medical school, I I loved challenges, and one of the most fascinating things during medical school was the brain and brain anatomy and brain physiognomy and how the brain works. And so in my fourth year, I was invited to Cure by a friend of mine who was working at Cua. And I visited Cure, Uganda, then as a young medical student. Like, wow, this is a great place to work.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Did you have any idea? Had you ever heard of Cure before your friend invited you to come visit?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Never. I had never heard of Cure, but what moved me then was the spirit of family and love amongst the staff, um, but also the level of care that was given to the children then. In my heart, I chose to move to Mbale to do my medical internship after medical school, and what surprised me is right after my internship training, an opening was at Cure Uganda for a medical officer. You can't imagine we finish internship training, and immediately the slot that opened up. I remember going for the interview in my pink shirt. Lucky pink shirt. Yeah, thankfully, I um I was given the job to serve at Cure, and it was a fundamental turning point to my service to God as a young man. For the first time, somebody held my hand within the cure ministry and helped me understand that the biggest thing in life was not just medicine or care we give to patients, but committing your purpose and calling to God to use what God has given you to serve Him. That was opened up to me by my service at Cure through their discipleship program. I kind of learned then that you know what, I'm a servant of God first before I'm a physician. And so through the ministry at Cure, I think my life vision was repurposed to using what God has given me for his service. And through the years, I think three years at Cure, um uh an opportunity was opened up for me to further my my career, and Cua sponsored me to go to Cape Town in South Africa to pursue a five-year training in neurosurgery, and God just pressed on my heart, Emma, it is simply that you will be my servant. That whatever I have given you, you will use to serve me and my people.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Can you just help us understand a little bit more about how Cure really invests in equipping, training, leveling up doctors from within the country that Cure is operating in? Can you just talk a little bit about how Cure invests in that and in the philosophy around that?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yes. So countries like Uganda, uh, at the time I went to university for my master's in neurosurgery, the ratio of neurosurgeon to population was about one to about nine million. One neurosurgeon for nine million patients. At the time I went for my training, actually, there were only five neurosurgeons in Uganda. I was the sixth going for training to do neurosurgery.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

In the United States, just to give people a little bit of a perspective here. In the United States, we have approximately one neurosurgeon for every 65,000 people. And Dr. Emma just shared that in Uganda at the time the ratio was one neurosurgeon to nine million residents. So, really, that helps us paint a picture of how rare this expertise was.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Yes. So within Cure's strategic plan is the clear understanding that Cure alone cannot reach all patients, all children with pediatric neurological diseases that need surgical intervention. And one key strategy is to build internal capacity within Cure to treat more children. By the time I went for my residency training, CUA had already trained two neurosurgeons. So of the five in the country, Cua had trained almost half of those in the country. And as I speak now, CUA is sponsoring two additional neurosurgeons. And this is mainly informed by since 2021 to date, our surgical volume has grown by up to 60%.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Pre-COVID we're treating approximately 1,300 children. Last year alone, we treated, we just fell short of 2,200. So there has been a drastic increase in the volume of patients we are treating at QA Uganda. That is so amazing.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Will you tell us a little bit about um so specifically the hospital in Uganda focuses, their specialty is neurosurgery? Tell us a little bit about why that is so important and what one of the main conditions and specialties that you have and are continually treating.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yes. So QA Uganda basically is a specialized pediatric neurosurgical hospital. So all we treat is pediatric population with um neurological conditions that can surgically be corrected. Uh conditions like hydrocalus, spina bife, brain tumors, and epilepsy. Now you find that the burden of disease alone for these conditions in Uganda, it's estimated that about you have about 6,000 children treated with these conditions in Uganda alone per annum. What is surprising is that Cua is only treating 2,200. And so there's a big burden of disease. Actually, Cua is the only hospital in the region doing what it does. As a result, if these children do not have access to care, eventually most of them will die without treatment. With Cua's presence over the last couple of years, with the advocacy, with the mobile clinics, with reaching out to communities, that the children are not a curse and that the children are divine and a blessing from God. We are seeing families bringing in children early, and this speaks to the big volumes of patients we are seeing right now.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Will you tell folks who are not familiar specifically with hydrocephalus, what is that condition? And I'm really interested in just hearing kind of a high-level comparison of what happens when it is left untreated, and then what is the complexity of the treatment and what happens after that treatment?

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Yeah, so Liz, um for a child who comes in with hydrocalus, and first and foremost, hydrocephalus is taken from two Greek words, hydro for water and keepphalas for the head. In these children, you have the cerebrospinal fluid, which is the water that bathes the brain, being obstructed from its natural flow. You could think of a river flowing down a stream and a boulder is thrown in its path, it will flood to its banks. In these children with hydrocalus, you have the buildup of this water and it starts seeping into their brains. It starts stopping sufficient blood from flowing into their brains. And so, slowly by slowly, their brains start melting away. If this continues on, the brain, kids will lose their brain function, and this pressure causes their heads to enlarge, making it difficult for their mothers to nurse them. Because of these pressures, these kids cannot eat, they become extremely malnourished, become so thin because of the hydrocap, they are vomiting up all their feet. Eventually, this leads to the death of these children. If they survive, they survive with severe disability. Once a child has hydrocalus and they have early treatment, what happens in these children the water that is flowing under high pressure and destroying their brains is diverted or diverted to chambers that can absorb it. When you divert yourself to another cavity, you create the right environment for the brain to grow. You reduce the pressure that are destroying the brain, and the brain starts growing again, starts improving again, and these children begin to walk, begin to speak, they begin to crowd. Something that would not happen if it was not treated. So on one side is a child with severe disability and death, and on one child side is a child with hydrocalus who can gain maxima potential in terms of function. That's the contrast between a child who is treated and a child who is not treated.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

And do these kids go on to live like are they able to achieve full brain healing and functioning, assuming that they're treated early enough before any permanent brain damage has happened?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Liz, we have kids who are in school and finished university. We have kids who have babies as I speak. There are many testimonies of kids who have done well over the years. And again, like you mentioned, early treatment, especially if the primary cause of hydrocapus has not destroyed their brains, these kids do extremely well. Wow. When I think about cure, I think of an oasis of healing. I think of a place where God does miracles every day. It's a true oasis of healing, and we treat the highest volumes of children with hydrocapus with phenomenal results. One key pillar of Cure international among organizations is quality patient care. There's no doubt that we treat the highest volumes and have quite phenomenal outcomes when it comes to our patients.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

I think that is one of the things that really strikes me about Cure as an organization in general, is just the absolute commitment to excellence. I mean, I would argue also what Cure does better than anyone else in the world is not only these neurosurgeries, but also just the level of holistic care of a child coming into this place and there being spiritual, soul, relational, psychological care that also is this holistic program that they get welcomed into.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah, Liz, you know, we we offer both medical and integrated with spiritual ministry. And that's a big attraction for me to work with Cure. Just understanding that beyond medicine, a human being is whole. Many times the mothers who come to us feel dejected, feel downcast. Because from a society perspective, uh, mothers who have children with this condition are victimized as cast, as it is your fault that we have a child in the family like this. Actually, many husbands, I think, because of ignorance, leave their wives. And when they come to cure, and that's why I quote an oasis of healing, it's not just about we want to get your child okay. It is mom, we know you have a child with hydrocapus. How can we make a world the world a better place for you? We have social workers, we have pastors, we have community pastors uh who engage these mothers in their communities just to make them understand that it is not your fault. You are loved by God and you are precious, and for me, key is within the cure ministry is the ability to connect people with a true understanding of who God says they are.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

I mean, we talk about miracles, and I just have to say that alone, we don't even we're not even talking about what is happening in an OR with a child's brain being healed. But even that experience for a mother, I mean, I can't think of a more painful experience than watching your child suffer. Then you add on top of that pain the suffering that comes from shame, guilt, rejection, loss of community support. And so I just imagine a mom walking into this hospital before the child is even treated, to have her have a medical professional and people that are credible and so well respected, to look at her and to just say, one, this is not your fault. And two, you are not alone. You could end the story there. And I think that that's a miracle that is happening every day in that facility. And it just could make me weep to think about that woman getting welcomed into a place where folks look at her and say, This isn't your fault. You are a child of God, you are beloved, and you are not alone. We're gonna walk with you and alongside of you during this process is just so it's so beautiful to me.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

One other thing I do really love about serving cure, I'll just go back to the commitment to excellency. Every passing moment you see a direct investment in improving our patient outcomes. Every passing moment, our leadership is committed to ensuring that we in the mission have what we need to perform the highest level of surgery. I remember being in a meeting, and leadership at QA Uganda said this one thing is that we want an operating theater for the children in Uganda that is like a child in a high-income country like the USA would have. And as I speak now, actually, we have just completed building a beautiful surgical shirt. It is equipped to internationally acceptable standards. To date, QA Uganda has four neurosurgeons, and you can't imagine two more neurosurgeons are going to join the team in the next three years. And so, for me, just having a phenomenal operating environment. Actually, we have the biggest pediatric ICU in Uganda. Wow. Imagine a child coming from, let me say, the poorest place in Uganda, that is Kalamoja. They live in little huts called manyatas. A mother will walk into Cuba near barefooted with maybe one or two shirts with a baby. This baby will get first-class treatment in an IC. They'll have surgery in a first-class suit, a theater suit. This is God showing his grace to people through the people who support us. Because these mothers actually cannot afford his treatment. But if the term the list of the list exists, God has provided for these children through Cure in Uganda. And so it's it's just exciting to work with an organization that is intentional on ensuring that God's people are honored when they come to a hospital, are dignified when they come to a hospital.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

One of the things that really strikes me as you're talking about this is going back to the beginning of this conversation, talking about your own journey. One of the first things that you said was that when I showed up at Cure, my perspective on my own life and my purpose and work as ministry, I received mentorship. I was brought into this really formative spiritual vocational community. It was like you led with here's what I received by taking a job at Cure versus here is what was extracted from me or what I was, you know, only expected to give. I just think that's really striking. I do a lot of work with healthcare organizations here in the United States. And I'm sure similar things happen all over the world, just an enormous amount of burnout and lack of engagement and healthcare providers who feel like they are being asked every day to show up and to care for others, but at the cost of their own physical health, at the cost of their own emotional, you know, social, spiritual well being. And so the fact that your experience being an you know an employee of Cure that you led with here's everything that I received from this organization that helped form me and care for me. Now out of that, I am able to go pour into these mothers, into these. Children.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah, I mean Kewa as as an organization is very intentional about staff discipleship and staff welfare. There are places that you work for and maybe you feel just a number. At Kewa it's different. First and foremost, uh the mission to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal the sick. I mean, that's our primary call as as Christians. But in doing so, you understand that the guy at the mission, the mission ground is his priority. And for me that has been my journey and an experience. There is no doubt that with the numbers I have spoken of, that it takes some time, sacrifice and commitment. But the sacrifice and commitment is very different when you know you have the support of your organization. Interesting enough, for KY Uganda and I'm part of the leadership team, over the last five, six years, 96% of our workforce is still with us. So our staff retention is pretty high.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Wow. Say that again. 96% retention rate correct. That is really extraordinary.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

And and like I mentioned earlier, when you think about it, why do we do what we do? The simple answer is to bring glory to God. I think for me not to be seen is okay, but rather that God is sin. Because we live for Him. And so when you think about neurosurgery with humility, it is it is big, but not too big for God. And for me, it is why do why do I do to bring glory to God? And so everything I do, I do for him. I remember one of my colleagues is called Humphrey, he's a surgeon, and he said something very phenomenal. He says, Emmanuel, I'm first a disciple of Christ before I'm a neurosurgeon. He's one of our most senior neurosurgeons. And that was his entry remark into Cure. Just the understanding that my purpose in life cannot be a calling if it's not surrendered to God. It only becomes a calling when it's surrendered to God. And so for me and for many of my colleagues have worked with that cure. It's not about being the big neurosurgeon. It's why do I do this every day? It is to bring glory to God's name.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Amen. Well, Dr. Emma, thank you so much for dedicating time out of your very busy, very meaningful schedule to be here with us today. I'm feeling what I feel often when I get done having a conversation with a member of the Cure team, which is this very unique mix of feeling so inspired and encouraged and also challenged and convicted with how I am showing up in my own life with very different skills than you have. Not neurosurgical skills, but asking myself the question of what are the gifts that God has given me and what does it look like to fully surrender those? So thank you so much for the work that you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Well, thank you, Liz, for having me and for the engagement. Thank you, Tony.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Thank you so much for spending your time here with us today. If this conversation resonated with you and you'd like to keep going deeper, we would love to invite you into Club Cure, a community of people who care deeply about these kids and being a part of changing their lives. You can find all the details and join us by clicking the link in today's episode description. That's all for today. Thanks again for listening, and we'll be back next month with another special cure conversation.