While eating dinner one night, I was meet two great women Helen and Janeen. Helen and Janeen were in Kampala working with Mulago Hosptial's Heart Institute and Pediatric Heart Program, through University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill. Mulago Hospital is the national urban teaching hospital for Uganda; it has the best facilites for providing higher level medical care.
Note: If you have seen the movie "The Last King of Scotland" this is the hospital I am referring to. It is a bit surreal to walk around the hallways.
Helen invited me to come spend the day at the Mulago Intensive Care Unit. It was an amazing experience! I was able to meet some of the Open Heart Team, and spend a bit of time with the children in recovery.
Helen invited me to come spend the day at the Mulago Intensive Care Unit. It was an amazing experience! I was able to meet some of the Open Heart Team, and spend a bit of time with the children in recovery.
UNC and DC Children's Hospital donate a whole team of medical professionals (Cardiologists, Surgeons', MDs, Respiratory therapists, scrub nurse, PAs, anesthesiologist, profusionist, and recovery nursing staff) who come and preform 10+ surgeries on children with heart defects. The team not only preforms the surgeries, but they are aslo teaching the nursing and MD staff at Mulago.
Prior to the team arriving, The Mulago Heart Institute screens patients, organizes the patients' arrivals. Once the team has set up shop - they work together to assess the patient and get them prepared for the critical 60 minutes of Bypass time and 30 minutes of cross clamp time necessary to correct the child's intracardiac defect.
The following are some pics of my day!
The following are some pics of my day!
Edwin 3 yrs- perimembranous VSD and sub aortic membrane repair
Patricia G -2.5 yrs/PDA ligation
The medical mission is now working towards implementing a tele-med program, and setting up a Cath Lab. If anyone happens to know of hospitals who are renovating/upgrading and would like to donate medical equipment, please let me know. This would be the only Cath Lab in the entire country!
Also, the team had previously set up a PICU (Pediatric ICU) for the hospital. The PICU and the Neonatal ICU are in desperate need of supplies, the infant mortality rate is extremely high due a variety of reasons -(2 nurses are caring for 80 babies at one time). However, mother's are encourage to stay and care for thier babies around the clock.
If you are interested in joining or starting your own Medical Mission via a Hospital or University, I'd be happy to connect you to this team - to get some information on how they started up.
1 comment:
Wow, what an experience Jess! The pictures are powerful, but it must have been overwhelming to walk through there.
I heard that Sanae flew you somewhere the other day!!
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