Ilula-Friends-2017
Monday, December 30, 2019
Jill's Reflections before leaving
Getting very excited to see old friends in Ilula and meet new friends from our group! Looking forward to showing our PharmD students all that Ilula, Iringa and Tanzania has to offer- the experience is so rich and rewarding. My next challenge is to pack VERY light- I always say that but somehow.....One suggestion for the team is to bring a few snacks for the bus- protein bars, beef jerky and of course sweet things work well too. It is amazing how a taste of home can quell a tired or unfamiliar feeling on the journey.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Maasai Preaching Point Photos
They sang and danced for us.
What a basketball player!
The men danced for us. Wow can they jump!
A couple of our own level-headed women! Mahveen ^ and Lauren ->
Above, the men danced for us. The women responded in like manner. Well, not with the high jumping, but up close and personal, for sure.
And they are tall too!
Ndio, Tanzania, mimi nakupenda!
What a basketball player!
The men danced for us. Wow can they jump!
A couple of our own level-headed women! Mahveen ^ and Lauren ->
Above, the men danced for us. The women responded in like manner. Well, not with the high jumping, but up close and personal, for sure.
And they are tall too!
Ndio, Tanzania, mimi nakupenda!
Saturday, February 11, 2017
The Close of our 2017 Ilula Medical Experience
As deeply as the death of our smallest charge affected me
personally, I cannot let that be the last entry in the blog. A couple others are on the list of
contributors, but I know they are consumed by travel weariness and jet
lag. Hopefully, they will add their reflections too. Thankfully, Dan McIntyre notified
me that our intrepid travelers, you recall AKA “the fun group,” arrived home
unscathed, though not without a little scare when two nearly missed the plane
in Amsterdam.
Birdie and I remain in Iringa until Friday when we will
indulge in a new experience and fly from Iringa to Dar es Salaam. As an aside, we have contemplated using this
transport both ways, to and from Iringa to Dar.
However, we tend to bring significantly extra baggage that does not
return home with us, e.g. computers thanks Dan, Gary and Margaret!), some
medical supplies, scrub suits intended to be left behind, this year hospice
kits (thanks Jill Strykowski and Allina Friends!) and quilts for the new
nursing student class, a donation of 17 stethoscopes (thanks Dan and Sue
McIntyre and 3M!), 2 soccer balls, (Dan and Sue), some resuscitation equipment
(thanks Jon Koratoff and Nadia Juneja), education supplies from Lauren Turner’s
boyfriend’s church (Mike, I hope). And
that was just with the fun group and with apologies to those I may have missed! So it
should be apparent the difficulty we would have on the entrance trip. And the group would miss the thrill of Mikumi
National Park and the surprise of seeing African animals up close for the first time.
All in all, it was a terrific experience for me as
always. I miss being with the larger
group more. Cannot be helped, I suppose,
being relegated to the fun group.
We (the collective, not the Royal) continue to learn things
as our experience grows. Well, duh, you say. Me too.
As an experiment this year, because in the end we had the room, we had a
couple non-medical personnel with us. As
always, this had some unexpected consequences.
Dave diligently walked daily to the Ilula Orphans Program (IOP) where he
learned vernacular Kiswahili and worked hard.
Dan made forays to several schools and was the resident computer expert.
Obviously these were highly useful things to do, but could be done anytime
other than the medical trip. We have had
students in the past who stayed at IOP and occasionally visited us, an altogether
different experience.
This time after the official experience has inspired, or perhaps incited, the
contemplative side of me. I am trying to
write a “Code of Conduct,” and also a specific waiver regarding use of the public
transportation. Having a coaster bus at
our disposal, mostly unused on a daily basis, is a burdensome expense; our
travelers have been quite insistent that they want to ride public
transportation. Yet our biggest risk in Tanzania is (motor vehicle) accident,
not TB, HIV, malaria or the other maladies we tend to worry about (not even
Zika or Ebola). Bummer, since the
crashes are virtually all preventable.
I will end on a high note. Once again, the trip was
rewarding and memorable for me. My hope
is that our crew feels the same way! We
have met lifelong friends here in Tanzania that we look forward to seeing every
year. I truly hope my path crosses those
of all our travelers’ soon and often in the future!
Enjoy the photos below! Or above. I will publish them separately, since Blogger is misbehaving.
Monday, February 6, 2017
The Baby Died
Those leaving had an opportunity to say thanks and
goodbye. I was pleased to offer
appreciations to the staff for their good work and pointedly let them know they
are role models for the nursing students.
Then we heard morning report. First, a man died in the night. He had complained of chest pain earlier and
multiple other problems, including HIV at age 36, which was why he was admitted. His death diagnosis was asystole. It happens.
Next, we heard what none of us wanted or expected to
hear. Our eight-month old patient,
Adonis, with the severe malnutrition (marasmus) had died. We all thought the baby looked slightly
better after getting therapy started. We
learned some additional history too.
This was at least the third time the infant had been admitted to the
hospital, the first two times at the Regional Hospital in Iringa. Despite the efforts we made, he had a couple
chances before he reached us. Did someone drop the ball at Iringa? This is
information we cannot know. It is
tempting to climb the ladder of inference, but there are so many
explanations! Was this an unwanted
baby? Munchausen’s by proxy? Poor care
at the Regional Hospital? Inadequate resources? Inadequate teaching? All of
these things?
All I can say is I am deeply saddened at our failure to save
this child, but perhaps it was inevitable. I know he would not have died in the
US.
To make things worse, if they could be worse, Sovelo had a
disaster too. A woman with 2-3 previous
C-sections and only two prenatal visits, presented in labor, an indication for
emergency surgery. The nurses noted
fetal heart tones (FHT). Unfortunately, at
surgery, Sovelo found extensive adhesions (scarring) that made access to the
uterus very difficult. He delivered a
macerated baby, indicating previous intrauterine fetal demise. The baby was grossly deformed, with brain,
meninges and heart malformations externally visible.
That tragedy was not enough.
The mother had severe bleeding. With heroic effort, Sovelo got that
stopped, some blood transfused, the uterus removed, and the woman transferred
to the Regional Hospital.
The case prompted a tirade from one of the nurses about
patients who do not do what we say is best for them. This happens at home too: competition between
the medical professional principles of primacy of the patient, autonomy of the
patient, and social justice, sometimes causing a clash that may be
unresolvable.
The FHT disparity raises questions too. Obviously, the baby had died before the FHT
were recorded as present. What is the explanation? Shortcut? Lack of
synchronization with maternal pulse? (This was kindly Sovelo’s explanation.)
Again, it is difficult but essential not to climb the ladder of inference. Handheld electronic Doppler Ultrasound fetoscopes
may not be the perfect answer, however, they are durable, portable, reliable, quick
and pretty inexpensive – under $100, I think.
Perhaps ILH should have one or two and each of the eight Lutheran
Dispensaries should have one also.
We will debrief these cases this evening, perhaps mainly for
reflection. Now we have all seen such
cases in our experience here. Still I
had a lot invested personally in the case of Adonis.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
A Mixed Blessings Birthday
Today I went rounding with Dr. Benjamin. He had already begun his work. Others of the
team were distributed amongst the various other ILH functions so I was with him
by myself. I heard there was a child
with a substantial burn that I was anxious to see. He had basically finished with the little
girl. I decided to take a peek. The 3 1/2 year old girl had somehow splashed
boing water on herself. This is a very
common problem in TZ. The wood or
charcoal stoves are low to the ground and sometimes the pots tip. There was an infant that died of an extensive
burn a week or so ago. Fortunately, this
little girl has mostly superficial second-degree burns with some deep second
degree, about 18% body surface. Of
course, the important concept in treatment is to keep the second degree burns
from becoming third degree, i.e. full thickness burns. They know what they are doing here. If only
there were fewer of them to know about.
I tried to make myself helpful and saw a couple kids with
respiratory problems. Both were stable;
both had pneumonia. Both should do fine.
We moved on.
The Growth Chart |
In the next room we went to, there was a baby, an eight
month-old who was sick. The mama was
young – I do not know how young at the moment – and accompanied by bibi
(grandmother). I am not even sure why
mama brought the child in now and not last week or last month. The baby has
marasmus.
About 38% of children under-five years of age in Tanzania
are stunted, i.e. short for age.
Stunting is a surrogate or indirect measure of chronic under-nutrition. Wasting, low weight-for-height, is a measure
of acute under-nutrition. (Remember that obesity is also malnutrition.) Marasmus is the extreme case of wasting.
The mother had never breastfed the infant. Dr. Benjamin speculated lack of counseling on
discharge from the hospital. Did she leave early? Did she just get missed? She
had told someone that her milk did not come in.
A wives’ tale, or should I say “Bibi’s tale,” is that colostrum is
harmful. Was she discouraged in this
fashion? Attempted and persistent
nursing is what stimulates milk production.
What happened? Perhaps we will
find out as a few days roll by, but my language barrier will obstruct me from
finding out easily.
I do not know what he has been fed. Possibly only dilute
ugali.
Marasmus kids look like little old men or women. The face is drawn, Adonis’ face is drawn and
tiny. Their ribs stick out. My colleagues noted, “You can count his
ribs.” His arms and legs are sticks. His
lips are dry and cracked. A rash is peeling the skin away on his posterior
thighs.
The last case of marasmus I saw, a two year-old girl, died
within two hours of admission. Kelsey
Watt, do you remember her? I know you do! Her picture, which has haunted me for
several years, is now replaced by that of Adonis. Yes, I am using his real name
and no apologies. If he survives and I
see him again in a year, perhaps I will apologize. Or just hug him.
Ashura, one of our nurses, is the local authority on
malnutrition and knows just what to do.
We recruited the nursing students for round-the-clock attendance to help
with feeding and to watch for re-feeding syndrome, intolerance of formula. I went back to the room this evening. The nurses have washed him and lubricated his
lips. I got to hold him for a few minutes. I told him, “I am Babu,”
grandfather. I will be on edge until I
know he has started improving. This
morning, my actual birthday, I am relieved and happy to report that he looks
qualitatively better. This afternoon, no diarrhea and no vomiting, the latter
the important sign of re-feeding syndrome.
This morning we heard the second year Nursing Students
report out on their field experiences.
The three teams each went to a separate communities where they lived for
4 weeks, assessing the community’s health needs. They all did a marvelous job – in English.
On a further happy note, we are having a get-together for
the entire staff tomorrow (now today). I
volunteered for our group to pay for the sodas and water. That was before I
knew there are close to 180 people, including nurses, doctors, aids,
volunteers, housecleaning staff, guards, nursing students and tutors and us. It was also before Kikoti suggested two
bottles each. Originally I coined it a
“Soda Party.” I had not connected it with my birthday. Still it is more apt as a going-away party,
since Jon and Mahveen will leave Saturday and the remainder will leave Tuesday
next. I will stay on in Iringa with Birdie for another 10 days.
An update on the Soda Party. I am pretty sure it was the
biggest thing at ILH since Saga’s wedding, which was BIG! OK, so that was at the church, not the
hospital, but anyway, it was BIG.
There won’t be any photos of Adonis. You may look at the growth chart, however. Note that his weight had crossed many
lines. I am not sure why the baby was
not sent for consultation at any point in the past. Possibly he was. There could be a myriad reasons why nothing
happened. Perhaps I will find out. Maybe
not.
Tanzanian line dance |
I have a party crowd photo from my birthday party – I mean,
the “Soda Party.” You can pick out what you see as blessings above. You should
include the birthday present I got from the nursing students, kobe in Kiswahili
or turtle in Kingereza. I am contacting
Mr. Magafuli for special dispensation to bring him (kobe) home. I am tweeting Mr. Trump.
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Tadaaahhh!
This post is dedicated to the student project that
Prosperity and I have created in hopes of bettering the communication among the
appropriate staff at Ilula Lutheran Hospital. Throughout our time at the
hospital, which expanded to approximately three weeks, we have realized a flaw
within the hospital regarding laboratory test availability and lack of
communication regarding this issue.
When Prosperity brought up this issue at one of our
discussion meetings, we had decided to brainstorm ideas for resolving this
issue within the communication process. Specifically, we had discovered that
some staff members (clinical officers, doctors and nurses) were not fully aware
of all of the laboratory tests that were offered at the hospital. Among that
issue, we became aware that many of the lab tests that normally are available
were not able to be measured due to various issues (reagent out of stock or
unavailable, machine broken, etc). Therefore, much of the staff were not aware
of the lab tests that were or were not available. During inpatient rounds, we had
observed that certain labs would be ordered, then the following day would not
have been completed. After much questioning, we discovered that certain lab
tests could not be completed due to both reagents being out of stock and the
machine to run certain tests was broken. Therefore, the communication system
between some medical staff (doctors, clinical officers and nurses) and the
laboratory staff was flawed.
In order to get a better idea of how this issue
could be resolved, we decided to talk to Emmanuel, the District Laboratory
Manager, to hear his opinions regarding the issue. Fortunately, he was
able to find some time in his busy schedule to meet with us and the Ilula
Laboratory Manager, Naftal. We discussed the problem s that we have noticed in
our time at the Hospital. Both Emmanuel and Naftal agreed that this communication
gap was largely a “failure in system tracking” that needed to be resolved for
the betterment of the hospital and staff. After a very informative meeting with
Emmanuel and Naftal, we decided that we had enough information to kick start
our project with approval from them. This project was completed with the
understanding that it would be easy enough to update on a weekly basis and
continue after we had left the Hospital. Prosperity came up with the brilliant
idea of creating a board called, “laboratory testing availability.” The idea of
the board is to not only have all the available lab tests at the hospital, but
also have the information regarding stocking (in/out of stock) and any other
important information (example, CD4 – out of stock – reagent out). This white
board can be easily updated weekly and can be presented to the medical staff
during morning report. We are very excited to present this project to Emmanuel
and Sovelo, the medical officer in charge at Ilula Hospital. This project will
hopefully bridge the gap in communication between the laboratory staff and the rest
of the medical staff and it is amazing to have Emmanuel and Naftal happily on
board with it.
Final Supervision Visit for Second Year Nursing Students
Lauren and I had the pleasure of traveling with Tuli and Anifa, the nursing school teachers, to visit the second year nursing students for their final supervision visit. Although it was a long day of travel, the scenery surrounding us was absolutely breathtaking - which made the time in the car that much more worth it!
Loving the amazing views!!!! |
So is Lauren!! |
After visiting for a short while, we then left the students and the nearby village to go visit the second group of students in the village of Udekwa. This village was within the mountains, so traveling there took a large amount of time, but was worth the journey since the scenery was so beautiful. Once we arrives, the students were graded on their similar projects. We shared lunch that the students had prepared for us, which consisted of delicious noodles and beans. Shortly thereafter, we visited the nearby primary (elementary) school where we met several of the students. Tuli took the opportunity at the end of the school day to make a speech about "working hard to accomplish goals and reach your dreams". We thought this portion was exceptionally moving. Once visitation was over with, we made our way back to Ilula with the teachers and stopped on the way to grab some cooking charcoal and plantains for the teachers. Overall, it was an amazing experience being able to see the students thriving and helping the community. It also was great to have the opportunity to contribute not only to the students learning but to the betterment of the dispensary and community.
Below are some photos of the projects the students were engaged in.
Thanks for reading!
Prosperity and Lauren
In the Dawa_ Arranging the drugs |
Student's Hand washing Project |
In search of clean water source for the village |
Sanitation buckets organized for the labor room |
Supplies organized for the labor room |
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