Professor Mitiku Belatchew has become an internationally renowned surgeon. Born into a family of 9 in a rural area where there were no schools, he tended cows and goats from the time he was a small child. At age 12 he left his village of Wenshi to attend school in Addis Ababa. Without any funds, he performed odd jobs to finance his studies. With a high school diploma in hand, he went to study medicine in Belgium where he specialized in digestive surgery. Facing the distress of many patients who are often between life and death, Mitiku invented a ring that is inserted in the upper part of the stomach under laparoscopy. He developed the Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) technique for the treatment of morbid obesity and he is one of the pioneer surgeons for laparoscopic surgery. Surgical workshops have been organized and Prof. Belachew has trained more than 300 surgeons from all over the world on this procedure
Today, more than one million people have been operated around the world using this remarkable technique.
A book entitled ‘The Shepherd Became A Surgeon’ by Professor Mitiku Belachew was released in November 2020. The book which is translated from the original French version focuses on the life history of the professor who managed to become a world renowned Doctor from being a shepherd in small village.
Azeb Worku & Jean-Marc Boutonnet-Tranier “The Shepherd Surgeon” film is available to view on You Tube