St Josephs Hospital Childrens Ward

Much of our daily life this week has been centred around the childrens ward working alongside Dr Charles and the other medical and nursing staff. We have many with malaria and its accompanying complications. Seizures can be a feature of Cerebral malaria and because the possibility of meningitis needs to be ruled out, these children need lumbar punctures to get samples of spinal fluid for analysis. Yesterday, Ben did his first LP on one of our children and fortunately it was normal and she is now improving on treatment.  We also had a child admitted today with severe malnutrition and have been able to learn from the medicos here some of the latest treatments being used to help these little ones recover and regain weight. Some children here contract HIV/AIDs virus from their infected mothers and as a result are susceptible to Tuberculosis and failure to thrive.
The team who work here permanently  are making  a huge difference to this community and work  under very difficult circumstances . Every morning we all meet for a time of talking about current new admissions and also local health challenges. Today we were told about the community outreach program for education on nutrition. Groups of mothers are helped to choose local food mixes which provide the best balance of nutrients. New crops like oranges and paw paws are planted to give a source of vitamin C. Yesterday Dr Lawrence also told us about some ways to improve vaccination coverage of the population. They have been working with local churches and came up with the idea of sending a health team to church and lining up all the children as they come out to give them vaccinations. I wonder how that would be received at our churches in australia ?

Childrens ward

We have POWER !

Our team has settled in to work here in Kitgum. We are staying in a small guest house on the hospital compound at St Josephs Hospital Kitgum. Everyone here is very welcoming and we have all we need. Our days start at 7 am with breakfast and we share a devotional from John Pipers book, "A Godward life ". This has been a great start for us. Ward rounds start at 8am. We are spending our time working with Dr Charles and his clinical officer and nurse assistants on the childrens ward. It takes us all morning to move around together assessing the 80 patients currently in the ward with conditions like malaria, HIV Aids, TB, Gastroenteritis and Pneumonia.  WE are all doing our best to also learn some Acholi language-- greetings and history taking sentences, much to the amusement of our listeners.
The health system here is in major trouble with cost cuts, poor morale and corruption making it very hard for the health professionals working at the coal face. Every day is a struggle for them.
In the afternoons we have been going to Bregma Primary health care clinic and working alongside dr Vincent and his team. Also we have had some time to visit another project here called  tendertrust run by Lois Ford from NZ who cares for about 100 orphans, many of who have major disabilities.  Its very impacting. Also our visits to the homes of some of our health workers has been a major highlight. More information to follow. Bedtime approaches and i need to get under my mosquito net away from these little malaria bearing mosquitos buzzing about me. We were all very excited tonight when the power came on after several days of blackouts. We rushed aorund and plugged in all our appliances to get charged up! The water heated up and we had hot showers!

YOTKOM UGANDA DRUG SHOP HAS OPENED.
Justin administrator. Sheila Nurse with Andrew and Dr Vincent

TseTse Fly attack

The team have been risking life and limb travelling across Uganda to reach our destination in Kitgum. On one leg of our road trip, the driver calmy instructed us to wind up our windows. Soon after, these same windows and the windscreen  were covered with swarms of flies seeking to penetrate the glass and insert their probosci into our white flesh!. Its the first time i have ever come face to face with the Tse Tse fly , famed vector of the horrible African Sleeping sickness, carrier of the tryanosoma parasite capable of  inflicting much human suffering. Ben  was able toincrease the fear factor by opening his  i phone ap and read out all the gory clinical symptoms and signs of those unfortunate enough to receive bites from these little critters! He also managed to in a moment of madness wind down the window and lety a few of the critters into the cabin !

Despite this potential set back, we have managed to have some time to rest up following the long flight from Australia. We have been able to see some African animals in the wild and view the Nile river and Murchison Falls. Tomorrow we will spend the day driving on to Kitgum, where our work begins.

 

Yotkom Medical Team 2012

June 27th 2012  --------our small medical team will be leaving Brisbane

Dr Andrew Wright will be accompanied by Ben Warlow, a final year medical student who will be spending his elective involved in Tropical Health Care at St Josephs Hospital Kitgum and the Bregma Primary Health Care Clinic . For 4 weeks in July we will be assisting the medical teams who work full time  on the ground in Kitgum, Northern Uganda.
Jade Mansfield is a Nurse working currently at the Mater Hospital Brisbane. She has visited Africa in the past and would like to spend 2 weeks  in Kitgum learning more about the delivery of Primary health care in an African setting.
We have been meeting together as a team to prepare for our time away. We value the prayer support of our family and friends and home churches during our time away.

Andrew will be helping Ben and Jade to make the most of their time in Uganda, as well as building further the Yotkom partnership with health care professionals in Kitgum.

Yotkom Uganda is about:

PARTNERING  TO IMPROVE ACCESS AND EXCELLENCE IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

We are seeking to grow

RELATIONSHIPS

RESOURCES and

SELF RELIANCE

Here is an update on progress since last year:
We have registered as a company in Uganda and have a management board which includes Andrew,  Dr Oringa Vincent (from Bregma Clinic)and Dr Charles Abonga (from St Josephs Hospital ).


A detailed project application has been submitted to Healthserve Australia and approval has now been given for   tax deductibility for donations received in Australia.
Donations can be made to Healthserve  online at :  www.healthserve.org.au

or by mail to  PO BOX 3032.   Erina.   NSW . 2250
If donating please quote our project name: Yotkom Uganda


Medical equipment is being stored here in Brisbane to be included in a container being sent to Kitgum in the second half of 2012.

In the last few months we have been continuing our sponsorship of Richard Yulam as a clinical officer.  He will qualify in July this year

We have also been providing the salary of a clinical officer,  Peter Omara to allow him to provide support for Dr Vincent Oringa in the Bregma Clinic.

There is a search underway to locate and purchase land within Kitgum town boundary with the goal of designing and constructing a purpose built primary health centre . This land will ideally be located near to a future council land grant to allow for expansion. WE need to raise funds for this. The land will be approximately $20,000 AUS. By relocating the Bregma Clinic into a purpose built centre built and maintained by Yotkom Uganda ,the clinic will save over $1200 AUS per month in rent which can assist the ongoing sustainability of this enterprise.

A small business has been started storing and distributing medical drugs and equipment to the Kitgum district. An office/shop front has been rented and fitted out and an accountant/administrator and two nurses employed to work in the Yotkom Drug Shop/Pharmacy. We believe this will generate a small profit each month which can be re invested into the health care service and reduce reliance on donor funding for sustainability of our project.

Please remember us in JULY and check this site for our posts and photos .
with thanks
ANDREW  BEN and JADE

Battling the menace of Malaria

This morning when i walked into Peters consulting room he had a young girl lying on the floor with a high fever. She had slight jaundice and an enlarged spleen, but she also had some signs in her chest. We thought it may be Pneumonia but were able to order a Malaria smear on site and found she had a heavy infestation of parasites. It was good to be able to look down the microscope at the blue rings which scattered across the film and be able to make an accurate diagnosis. She was admitted to our day ward and given the latest and most efffective malaria therapy, intra  muscular artemether along with IV fluids and antibiotics for the pneumonia.  When I walked past her bed in the afternoonn she was looking so much brighter. Its times like this that all the work and obstacles and frustration is worthwhile !

A special photo tonight for Andrew and Rowena Rowe . I delivered a present they sent for baby Dennis. His mother was lying on the verandah with him tonight, recovering from a hernia operation. her face lit up with a smile when i delivered the gift!

Dennis gets his pressie from Weena

I love the african children , so here too  is a shot i took today of baby david who had the emergency surgery this week and is doing very well.
isnt he so cute? he smiled at me as i walked past and chatted to him today.





David





 My last day here today and all of a sudden has come the promise and potential of a new exciting partnership with local medical practitioners which has the potential to mmake a major contribution to primary health care here . It is a story of an amazing roller coaster ride which is too complicated to share at the  moment...but.. more details later...

Andrew and Doc Vincent talk about new possibilities

 The big bus trip tomorrow, with my travelling companion Doc Laurel, then a long flight home on Sunday. Thanks so much to you for your emails and messages and prayers and support
The last few days have been pretty tough going here . I have really felt the power of your prayers  , especially in the last couple of days when some pretty amazing lows and highs have been happening... but i am leaving with hope and believe i will be back !

My work here is almost done

Malnourished child from Sudan

The medical superintendent at St Josephs Hospital has aked me to come and help in the childrens ward at some time next year. I spent some time there today with Dr Laurel and it brought back memories of  working there in 2003. I enjoy working with children and will give some consideration to returning and being involved with the 100 bed ward, the nutritional unit and a planned neonatal ward.  There have been some significant improvements in the hospital since i worked there and there is a good atmosphere there.  There is a lot of need.
Today we saw a little 1.8kg premature baby being nursed in very simple surroundings with no technology. You have to be tough to survive here!




premature baby 1.8kg with mum on the floor

 LAst night we had the privelege of visiting the home of the IGF Clinical Officer, Peter, meeting his wife Sheila and son Shadrak as well as his mother. What a simple life he lives outside of work!  I really admire this guy.
The clinic at IGF is now functioning well and can operate independently under the direction of Peter.  My "to do" list is complete with all the half finished jobs from my last visit tidied up and patients from the community being seen. the pharmacy is also working well. Please pray that the team here will work well together and be effective and receive support from the IGF administration in their work.  My influence is going to be significantly reduced when I leave on Saturday.