In May INMED posed the question, “Are short-term medical missions (STMM) effective?” and also raised related issues of ethics and cultural relevance. Responses from you the readers were plentiful and absorbing. You said that we should recognize both the pros and cons of such service: Advantages for our mission hospital are: Coverage for […]
Each year some 5,000 healthcare teams depart the US to service in a developing country – usually for 7-10 days duration. A growing number of authorities are questioning the efficacy of this enormous outlay of time and resources, posing the questions like, “Do short-term medical missions actually contribute to improving the overall health of
“In Haiti over eight days we saw 900 patients, treating infections and diarrhea. The people are desperately poor and were so very grateful for the medical care.” Anna, a family physician, spoke with enthusiasm. Then her voice turned somber. “But people also came to us with diabetes, asthma, and convulsions. We gave them a
“In Haiti over eight days we saw 900 patients, treating infections and diarrhea. The people are desperately poor and were so very grateful for the medical care.“ This young physician spoke with enthusiasm. But then his voice turned somber, describing how the police arrived to investigate the credentials of their medical missions team. Practicing
“This woman is in labor, but the baby just will not descend!” Dr. Akua spoke anxiously and with good reason. He’d just graduated from medical school in Ghana and only yesterday joined me at the Baptist Medical Center in northern Ghana to begin his years of public service. We examined the lady, found her
Disasters and epidemic disease continue to mark this new century: Haiti’s earthquake, Pakistan’s flood, measles’ blight, and Zimbabwe’s cholera. The title waves in Japan last week are the most recent reminder of life’s vulnerability. The heartening response from many is to donate personal time, talent, and treasures to provide rescue and assistance to those
The seventeen-year old lady, Adriana, in this photo presents to the maternity ward at the Lubango Evangelical Medical Center in Angola, southern Africa. Her last menstrual period is unknown, but her uterus is full-term in size. She is in labor and shortly delivers a healthy infant, followed by delivery of her intact placenta.
As a resident physician I spent a summer in Burkina Faso – an impoverished nation in West Africa. For years a group of nurses with SIM (Serving In Mission) had been living on site, providing community health and clinic care in this remote, hot, and culturally distinct community. As I attended to ill patients,
The seven-year old girl, Maria, in this photo presents to you at the Clinical Evangelica Morava on the remote western coast of Honduras. Her parents explain that five days ago she suddenly developed fever, vomiting, severe headache, and pain on moving her eyes. Several other children in the neighborhood have been similarly ill since
One very early morning I heard a quite thump at the door. Opening it, I gazed out on to the little courtyard of my home in Huambo, Angola. Edwardo, a young pastor, stood clutching his four-year old son. The child was gasping and drooling, his little black body darker from cyanosis – insufficient oxygen.