Emergency patients I saw today at Hospital Cristo Rei: a lady five months pregnant with interuterine fetal demise – very sad, an elderly man with starvation and end stage tuberculosis barely breathing, a fellow my age with a sudden stroke and hemiplegia, a one-year old with pneumonia no better after three weeks of treatment, […]
What’s the most vulnerable minute in person’s entire life? The very first minute following birth. During those few seconds the baby must transition from receiving oxygen from the mother via umbilical cord to clearing its own airways, starting respiration, and quickly shunting blood to lungs for the first time. Many children fail to survive
Today I was making inpatient rounds at Hospital Cristo Rei when I overheard, “I’m so glad God allowed me to contract leprosy, because it’s only here in treatment that I learned about Jesus. All those ‘healthy’ people in my town – they still know nothing of God’s mercy.” Such a stunning statement! Our normal,
Maria, the eight-month old in this photo, has been coughing for two weeks. She arrived here at Hospital Cristo Rei on the same day as I. Maria was breathing heavily, coughing constantly, and her chest demonstrated every sign of pneumonia. Her chest X-ray showed the right upper lung saturated with infection. Were she in
Senhor Eduardo was riding his tiny motor cycle down one of Angola’s “unimproved” roads when he struck a pot hole and landed on a boulder. What results was the injury in this X-ray above. Most concerning is that this fracture occurred five months ago. Eduardo was treated with 3 months flat on his back
Looks like a modern eye center in North America, doesn’t it? Actually, I took this photo today in Benguela, Angola – home of the Boa Vista Eye Center. Boa Vista was launched in about 1994 by my Swiss colleague for Kalukembe Hospital, Urs Pedro Bierly. Today it is lead by John Clements, a Board-certified,
My first two years living in Angola were in the midst of this nation’s civil war, which started in 1961 and escalated in 1974. A prototypical “Blood Diamonds War,” it was financed primarily by sale of oil and gems. A durable peace finally came in 2002. And what of these natural resources? Angola today
You struggled for years through undergrad and graduate school. You muscled past hundreds of exams and shouldered enormous financial debt. You endured in spite of taunting from your peers and self-doubt from within. You crossed the finish line with a fine education and credentials both hard won and well deserved. What career track is
You are serving at the international immigrant health clinic in Dallas. At the door of the waiting room a scene like the United Nations opens before you: Somalis, Iraqis, Hmong, Burmese – many wearing traditional dress. You call aloud the name of your next patient, “Sunita Bajracharya please.” A middle-aged lady gets to her
You are in Mozambique volunteering at a birthing center. The midwives are entirely African nationals who will have no backup once you depart. One evening reflecting on this fact you determine to vigilantly transfer your skills to permanent staff. At that moment a voice comes from the door, “The baby will not come down