OUT OF AFRICA!
I arrived back in the UK from Nairobi
this morning after having had an
amazing week working on an
improvised Paediatric Intensive Care
Unit at the Kenyatta National Hospital
caring for children (and some adults)
after 'open heart surgery'!
Some of my colleagues at the 'Saline
Nerve Child Hospital' in London have
gone on previous medical missions
with a charity called 'MEAK' = Medical
& Educational Aid to Kenya to work
for a week at the KNH, but this was
my first such trip. Besides which I have
never even been to Africa before.
The advantage of taking a dinosaur
like me along is that I remember how
patients were "specialed" twenty plus
years ago and how we had to improvise.
These days everything is so hi-tech in
the West we have machines to do stuff
for us, but in Africa some procedures
require some imagination.
In all MEAK financed 22 operations for
about £20,000 - which is the cost of
one heart operation in the UK! All of
the patients were doing well when we
left with the exception of one babe
who has a chest infection... we were
worried about him and it was a wrench
to have to leave.
Top marks to David Anderson our
brilliant surgeon and Claire Barker our
intensivist.
The nurses who all gave up a weeks
annual leave to go deserve praise.
The theatre (OR) team are amazing
especially considering that some are
self-employed and had to pay other
people to stand in for them in their
abscence!
I will write more anon but right now
I'm whacked and need to rest - but
it's been a brilliant week and I
absolutely loved Africa! Whatever
failings the continent has the people
there are fun-loving and incredibly
long-suffering.
God Bless Africa!
Post Script. 12th May 07.
On the day we left Nairobi we had to
re-intubate one of the infants we had
operated on. He had developed a
bad chest infection and wasn't able to
breathe byhimself.
We had to put him back on a ventilator
(what the newspapers call "a life
support machine"!) After such a
positive week that put a dampener on
our final day.
But I am glad to report that we have
since heard that he has made a good
recovery and is doing fine.
Well done to all the team back there
at The Kenyatta National Hospital!
I arrived back in the UK from Nairobi
this morning after having had an
amazing week working on an
improvised Paediatric Intensive Care
Unit at the Kenyatta National Hospital
caring for children (and some adults)
after 'open heart surgery'!
Some of my colleagues at the 'Saline
Nerve Child Hospital' in London have
gone on previous medical missions
with a charity called 'MEAK' = Medical
& Educational Aid to Kenya to work
for a week at the KNH, but this was
my first such trip. Besides which I have
never even been to Africa before.
The advantage of taking a dinosaur
like me along is that I remember how
patients were "specialed" twenty plus
years ago and how we had to improvise.
These days everything is so hi-tech in
the West we have machines to do stuff
for us, but in Africa some procedures
require some imagination.
In all MEAK financed 22 operations for
about £20,000 - which is the cost of
one heart operation in the UK! All of
the patients were doing well when we
left with the exception of one babe
who has a chest infection... we were
worried about him and it was a wrench
to have to leave.
Top marks to David Anderson our
brilliant surgeon and Claire Barker our
intensivist.
The nurses who all gave up a weeks
annual leave to go deserve praise.
The theatre (OR) team are amazing
especially considering that some are
self-employed and had to pay other
people to stand in for them in their
abscence!
I will write more anon but right now
I'm whacked and need to rest - but
it's been a brilliant week and I
absolutely loved Africa! Whatever
failings the continent has the people
there are fun-loving and incredibly
long-suffering.
God Bless Africa!
Post Script. 12th May 07.
On the day we left Nairobi we had to
re-intubate one of the infants we had
operated on. He had developed a
bad chest infection and wasn't able to
breathe byhimself.
We had to put him back on a ventilator
(what the newspapers call "a life
support machine"!) After such a
positive week that put a dampener on
our final day.
But I am glad to report that we have
since heard that he has made a good
recovery and is doing fine.
Well done to all the team back there
at The Kenyatta National Hospital!
No comments:
Post a Comment