Cross-Cultural Compassion – Angola Day 15
Wednesday, July 31st, 2013 |
One beauty of Jesus’ account of the Good Samaritan is the virtue it demonstrates of a person reaching beyond the prevailing social norms and barriers; a virtue applicable to any particular community across the world. This sketch is here in the entryway at Lubango Evangelical Medical Centers. Have you read the account recently? Take […]
Who Is Comforting Who? – Angola Day 13
Monday, July 29th, 2013 |
Last night I received an urgent call from our head nurse. Sónia, a girl of seven, was suffering worse respiratory distress. And suddenly, she began coughing up pus from the abscess in her neck. I was very familiar with Sónia, having admitted her four days earlier with severe cough, fever, and pneumonia. We have […]
Right Of Conscience – Angola Day 11
Saturday, July 27th, 2013 |
A time-tested right of conscience for healthcare professionals is the offering of free or discounted care to people in need. Prior the advent of managed care in the 1980s it was common for hospitals and healthcare professionals in the US to give such assistance on a case-by-case. But outside of an emergency department, today’s […]
Imagine A 37 Year Commitment – Angola Day 9
Thursday, July 25th, 2013 |
My colleague, Steve Foster, is a renowned Canadian surgeon. In 1975, he and his classy wife Peggy arrived in Angola in one of the bloodier phases of this nation’s civil war. As a young physician right out of tropical medicine school I enjoyed a six-month residency on site at Kalukembe Hospital under Dr. Foster’s […]
Mental Illness In Africa? – Angola Day 6
Monday, July 22nd, 2013 |
Picture this: I’m seeing a stream of people suffering from malaria, typhoid fever, deep bone infections, stroke, skin cancer, and then… “Doctor, I can’t sleep, I hear voices constantly, my entire body is burning, my brain is splitting open, and people want to kill me.” The spectrum and burden of mental illness in poorer […]
What’s The Result Of No Dental Care? – Angola Day 4
Saturday, July 20th, 2013 |
What’s the importance of dental care? This child arrived at Lubango Evangelica Medical Center, in Angola of southern Africa, with an abscess draining from under his chin, and with infection racing down his neck and into the chest. The source of his infection? A tooth abscess. The risks of his infection? Loss of his […]
ObamaCare & Practice Despair
Monday, July 1st, 2013 |
Key provisions of the federal government’s health insurance mandates were postponed last week. Nevertheless, amid frustrating electronic health records, flat salaries, declining reimbursements, and the ever-present threat of litigation, healthcare personnel persistently ponder, “Maybe it’s time that I pursue the career I once dreamed of…” What is your dream career? Many wax poetic […]
