Marta Klein is a physician assistant from Salina, Kansas, who in the fall of 2013 joined INMED for the International Medicine & Public Health Intensive Course. Since 2010 she is a volunteer with the Evangelical Covenant Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Marta writes, “I have training that is supposed to help, but sometimes there is little physically that can be done. For me, that is really a tough one. For example, my HIV positive patient has horrible pain from metastatic breast cancer, another man who for six months has had an open leg fracture and will need amputation, and a thirteen-year old boy only now coming for care with such profound malnutrition that he weighs just 12 kg.”
I think the negativity, despair, and suffering could become too overpowering for me,” writes Marta Klein. “So there are many moments when I internally raise my hands to God and ask for mercy and wisdom. I also offer to pray with my patients. And I try to find moments to savor, like enjoying the sweet perfume as I pass by the Plumeria tree by my apartment. I also especially enjoy teaching the nursing student here in Congo. If you are a healthcare professional – doctor, nurse, mid-level, dentist, physical therapist – please contact Paul Carlson Partnership for ways you can be involved. If you have any inkling to teach what you have gained through your career I especially encourage you to reach out and share what you know!