Sorry for the delay- the last few days have been jam-packed and I have not had WiFi to be able to post this.
On Sunday night half of the team arrived in Gulu and we had a wonderful dinner at the Pagoda. The following morning Twalib and I toured Liesl (Rheach-South Africa) and Renae (Touch Foundation-Tanzania) around the hospital so they could get a feel for what the clinic is like and what resources we have here. We had a couple of RHD patients come in, in addition to a few of Twalib’s more serious cases. There were probably about 20 people that showed up without an appointment simply because they heard that he was back-unfortunately we had to tell most of them to come back next week. One of his serious patients is an 11-year-old boy with constrictive pericarditis. He needs a pericardiectomy to save his life but unfortunately his family cannot afford it. His father has been saving all year but only has about 1/8 of what the total would be. Twalib has been reaching out to the director at the Heart Institute so hopefully we can get the fees waived. It’s hard to realize that sometimes life or death situations can revolve around money. Sadly fees cannot be waived for everyone because it is not sustainable.
Fluid build up in the 11 year old boy. Honestly heartbreaking to see how much pain he was in and how upset he was that he could not go to school anymore
After seeing some patients we met with the director of the hospital and then went to the records office so that we could see how cardiac cases, as well as other cases, are documented. As you can see I think sometimes we take technology for granted.
After touring the hospital the rest of the team showed up and we all headed out to St. Mauritz. They were so welcoming (as always) and couldn’t wait to show us around the property. They took us to their health center, which I had never seen before, and it was absolutely wonderful. They mostly focus on maternal health and it was awesome to see that a clean health center that is not overcrowded exists for women of this community.
Health Center at St. Mauritz- built with funds donated by a German group
On Tuesday morning we all loaded up into a passenger van and headed to Aber and Lira for site visits. The purpose of these visits was to help solidify some of the details for our upcoming handheld echo project. In my opinion the two sites were very different. Aber was a lot smaller and well organized while Lira reminded me a lot of Gulu Referral Hospital-overcrowded and a bit chaotic at times. I think a lot of the details for this project will begin to come together over the next couple of weeks so I will make sure that I keep you updated.
After visiting the sites, I headed back to Kampala with the team. After roughly 10 hours of sitting in the back seat of a van I was very excited by the prospect of a hot shower, dinner and a bed. Unfortunately I learned a very hard lesson upon my arrival-NEVER BOOK ANYTHING IN UGANDA ONLINE. Most of the team was staying at the Sheraton in Kampala (which was full) so I decided to book a room at a nearby hotel. The hotel had trip advisor reviews, a very detailed website and one of the doctors had told me she had even gone on a run by the place earlier in the week. When I arrived the whole place was completely deserted and apparently had been abandoned for almost 2 years. So there I was homeless and feeling like an idiot in front of some very intelligent people (with a lot of letters after their names). Luckily one of the project investigators, whom I met in DC in May, was staying at the Case Western Project house and offered me a room. I’d like to take this moment to apologize to my mom…sorry for causing you stress from 7,000 miles away. All in all I think it happened for a reason. There was a Case Western resident staying at the house and we had such a great conversation about Global Health and Medical School and the interview/application process-so thankful for her good company and great advice.
That’s all for now!
Leave a Reply