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
I so enjoyed talking this week with Pamela Smith, a physician from Chicago who completed the clinical experience for the INMED International Medicine Certificate at Lubango Evangelical Medical Center in Angola, southern Africa. “This was so very different than any medical mission I’ve ever experienced. Before, I was the leader, though really knew almost nothing about the nation where I
People seeking healthcare in North America are increasingly global in their make up. Some 50 million are culturally diverse and operate with understandings of health and medicine that are unfamiliar to most healthcare professionals. Nevertheless, we must effectively understand and communicate with these individuals and families to be successful in assisting them. Consider the following