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 […]
This morning I was part of the chapel service that the Angolas do here each Thursday. Their singing is amazing, and I find is fascinating to see how they have translated some of songs from English into Portuguese. Sozinho, one of the nurses, gave a presentation from John 11 – the account of Jesus
I rolled out about midnight in response to an urgent call from the hospital. The center sits on a escarpment that over looks the city, and it’s from there I shot one of the pics I share with you. Normally a gorgeous view, but at night the drive up the mountain is treacherous, with
Last night I was listening to an African family sing softly as I examined their young relative with severe abdominal pain. He was deeply jaundiced, so hepatitis was my primary diagnosis. But his abdominal tenderness was steadily increasing. Could this be an intestinal perforation from typhoid fever? Was I bold enough to operate and
This morning I cared for an older woman who care from the bush with an enormous cancer of her cervix. But fortunately she was feeling very little pain. All I could do was to explain to her adult sons that we had little to offer. It was way too late to operate. I hope
Find yourself reluctant to let go a sneeze in public? Understandable, given the nation-wide anxiety surrounding Swine Flu. Feel good when you pin on a pink ribbon? Quite appropriate, given the ubiquitous concern for fighting breast cancer. And isn’t it comforting to know that today’s treatments for heart disease call for stents far more
Last night, October 29, 2009, I was honored on behalf of INMED to receive the World Citizen of the Year award from Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser and the International Relationship Council. This is a remarkable acknowledgement of the devotion of hundreds of INMED partners serving people on the very margins of society in Papua New
I am touched over Kaylene Chlopek’s INMED experience with Dr. Ken Johnson at Choma Hospital in Zambia, an INMED Training Site: “I was struck with severity of the injuries suffered by the children. Many had fallen out of trees and broken bones. My first week at Choma Hospital, we set and plastered many broken bones, and
I am feeling warmhearted as I read Kirk Bodach’s account from Mseleni Hospital in South Africa: “On my last day working in the outpatient clinic the patient I was seeing said that he had been watching me. He said that I had done something VERY GOOD. Apparently he had seen me eating lunch at that hospital with
Just twelve days ago our planet was rocked by a duo of disasters. A 7.6-magnitude quake struck the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, followed by shocks of similar magnitude hours later. Within moments, these geologic convulsions reduced buildings to rubble in the city of Padang, where U.N. officials estimate as many as 4,000 people