Not every person coming for consultation has a significant illness. Indeed, Angola has a striking number of worried well afflicted with simple body aches and allergy symptoms. But roughly every other individual I examine presents with a strange diagnosis or very advanced pathology. What is this fascinoma? A 35-year-old woman with a mass […]
Even after thirty years of communist indoctrination, today’s Angolan people remain inherently spiritual. They readily assure that there is indeed a God and exist powerful spiritual forces. To say otherwise, in this country, is folly. What’s more, even after the rapid exit of most all international Christians during the war years (1976-2002), indigenous Angolan
This 63-year young woman arrived at CEML Hospital 3 days ago with large, full-thickness pressure ulcers of her entire buttock and hips. She was febrile, unconscious, and with a leukocytosis. Her lower extremities were both flaccid and without reflexes. We immediately initiated sepsis treatment with IV fluid and antibiotic therapy. The patient’s family
The challenge of low resource healthcare includes not just lack of assets alone, but also the spectrum of diseases that are especially common in such settings. Today is illustrative: parents came for consultation with this five-month-old whose eyes are yellow as a ripe banana and who’s abdomen is large as a watermelon. This quick
Angolans love to sing in harmony, with vibrant gestures and expressive smiles. Last night, when I brought my travel guitar to the CEML Hospital ward and began to softly play Latin and classical tunes, I was immediately accompanied by their vocal improvisation. Next, without my lead, they launched into familiar hymns, like A Deus
What special skills are required of healthcare professionals who serve the most vulnerable people? The answer depends upon that particular needs of those people. Angola’s civil war, 1976 to 2002, was marked by famine that afflicted 2 million people. We who served in that era established re-nutrition centers for the profoundly malnourished. Osteomyelitis (bone
I enjoy highlighting the inspiring service of Steve Collins. Born in Angola in 1938, Dr. Collins returned twenty years ago, bringing along with him special training in ophthalmology. But even more than this, Dr. Collins carried with him a compelling desire to alleviate the needless blindness that afflicts a mass of humanity in this
I’m honored to introduce my Angolan medical colleagues: Piedoso and Alberto. They are among the very small number of national medical school graduates, and also among the tiny fraction of these who then choose to serve their low-income compatriots in settings like CEML Hospital. In 1989, when I first came to live Angola, my
This seven-year old boy arrived today at CEML Hospital from a rural village. Two weeks ago, his illness began with a toothache in the left upper mouth. Five days ago, puss began draining through the skin. This very disturbing photo, taken with permission, shows a black hole at the center of the left cheek.
“My son was playing with a coin and now it’s stuck in his throat!” explained a distraught father in the CEML Hospital emergency department. Objects lodged in the upper esophagus or trachea are especially deadly. They can quickly obstruct breathing or rupture into the neck, causing rapid sepsis and death. Gratefully, at that moment