GuluFuture
Tribute to Dr Piero Corti  

A crazy man can be recognised not by his words, but by his actions”

- Acholi Proverb

Dr Piero Corti R.I.P

1925 - 2003

Piero Corti was born in 1925 in Besana Brianza, near Milan, Italy, the fifth of ten children. After obtaining his medical degree cum laude he completed specialisation courses in radiology (1953) and in paediatrics (1958). From 1955 to 1958 he undertakes two long stages in the Hôpital Sainte Justine pour les Enfants in Montreal, where he meets Lucille Teasdale.

Brought up in a deeply believing Roman Catholic family, he soon considers undertaking a missionary lifetime engagement. An initial experience in Marikunnu, (India) where Dr Fortunato Fasana, who will later become his brother-in-law, shows him how the dream of being a "doctor in lands of mission" can become reality. In 1960, following an "exploratory" tour through Chad, Belgian Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Kerala in India, he finally decides that his profession will be that of a "missionary physician" in Africa.

In April 1961 he begins his journey to Entebbe (Uganda) on an old Italian Air Force plane loaded with medical equipment, drugs and some money donated by relatives and by his father's industrialist friends.

Lucille Teasdale is on the same plane, having accepted to go with him to Gulu and "help him out for a couple of months". They are married in the Comboni Missionary sister's chapel in the Hospital on December 5th, 1961. He is charge of the medical and radiological activities, but also of the management and medical superintendence. Since 1988 he has repeatedly co-ordinated health training projects for the Italian Ministry of External Affairs as expert. Both Lucille and Piero have received a number of international acknowledgements and prizes.

After Lucille's death in 1996 due to surgically acquired HIV infection, Piero continued his work in Lacor Hospital as co-ordinator, even though the Hospital is now almost completely africanised.

He died peacefully on April 20th 2003, Easter day, and returned to the Father.

The Lacor Hospital tribute to their founder

In appreciation of his work you might consider making a donation to the hospital....Click HERE

Or

"Adopt a hospital bed": the beds from the Surgery department are now available for sponsorship. Thanks to your generosity, 170 beds from the Paediatrics, Nutrition and Maternity ward have already been adopted.

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