When I first moved to the city of Huambo in central Angola I myself developed a severe case of dysentery, as did my family. Solution? I had a well dug in my front yard – pictured here with the concert cap over the opening. None of us every became similarly ill again. Several readers have written […]
Image the pain of slowly loosing your eye sight, knowing that shortly you will be utterly dependent upon others to care for your most basic needs – pain like that experienced by the man in the photo above who is now entirely blind from cataracts. Then imagine the utter joy and elation of coming
One of the pleasant characteristics of medical life in Angola is that the evening are generally quiet – except for the C-section Monday at 4 AM that just could not wait for daylight. Weekday afternoons are also predictably tranquil. I took a break from the Evangelical Medical Center of Lubango to go hiking and climbing in
Pictured above is Steve Collins. This remarkable man began his career as a pastor in Newfoundland. As one of the few educated people in the area, Steve shortly discovered the town’s people bringing all their sick to him. So off he went to medical school. In 1991, about the time I moved to Angola,
Earlier this week I was talking with a 35-year old Angolan lady who lost her left leg to a land mine 10 years ago. Angola was once home to the highest per capita concentration of land mines in the world! Then, this lady lost 8 of her ten children to fever and diarrhea. No
My thoughts often turn to the men and women who serve at Kalukembe Hospital. Located about 100 miles NE of Lubango, Kalukembe is a typical, low-resource, isolated town on the Angolan savannah. There the disease of poverty are more apparent, and the medical resources are way less than at the Lubango Evangelical Medical Center.
Typhoid fever. At this moment I’m caring for a youth with this disease in the highlands of Angola, Africa. The typhoid ruptured six holes in his intestine, and has nearly taken his life. He is of the Ovimbundu people, for whom life has not changed in hundreds of years. The women and children tend
Here at the Evangelical Medical Center of Lubango hospitalized children generally do not do well. Honestly, I doubt this is a reflection on our Center as much as it is a mirror of the nation as a whole. Because of educational, financial, and cultural barriers parents tend to bring their kids for care only as a
Yesterday I was caring for 3 year old child in Emergency here at the Evangelical Medical Center of Lubango. He suffered from malaria and was in respiratory distress. His hemoglobin fell from 10 to 4 in just a few hours – indicating progressive destruction of his blood by the malaria parasite. I had a very
Here, amid the heavy rain showers, in the background I can hear wailing from the Gomez family. I am so very shocked and saddened to discover that their son, my young patient with typhoid fever, abruptly died! Yesterday, 4 days after surgery, his condition appeared to be excellent. He was talking with me and