Last week, I had the privilege of visiting of the AIM team in Mbarara. They have a wonderful team there. Also, the only other PT with AIM is in Mbarara. She works at a government hospital there and at the University. Her and her Ugandan colleague have started a PT program there that currently has 9 students and will grow with a new class next year.
Visiting the hospital there was very interesting. I was able to follow Zillah (the PT) around and see patients with her. The hospital is laid out by wards of men and women and another one for children. Each ward is just rows and rows of beds. Each patient at the hospital has to have an "attendant" with them at all times. The attendant has to bring sheets, pillow, clothes, and prepare food for the patient. The attendant is responsible for turning the patient every so often to prevent bed sores, washing all of the clothes and bedding, they are even responsible for emptying the catheter bag. Usually the attendant is a family member, and they have to sleep on a straw mat on the floor (that they bring) next to the patient's bed. It is a very different system then we are use to! (sorry I no pictures of this, I didnt think it would be appropriate)
Interesting things I saw that we would not see in most western countries:
Injection Neuropathy
Basically this is damage to a nerve caused by being damaged from a shot. There was a 12 year old being seen for PT that had malaria and instead of being treated with an IV medical drip (the recommended treatment - but it takes more time) he was given an injection of medicine into his bottom. The problem is the injection was given too close to his sciatic nerve and now he has severe pain in his leg. Apparently, this is quite common to see.
Bone Setters
Fractures are very common here (as in America) - but due to all of the boda bodas (motorcycles) as a main mode of transportation, there a very many accidents (Dad pretend like you didn't read that).In the villages especially there are people that call themselves Bone Setters and say they can correct fractures so they heal properly. Often if the fracture is aligned properly from the start the bone setters are "successful" (the fracture would heal normally anyway). But often if it is a malunion fracture the bone setter cannot fix it (or makes it worse) and the bone heals improperly. We saw a man who broke off the head of his radius (a bone that connects your wrist to your elbow... and now he cannot even bring has hand to his mouth to feed himself because it healed wrong. The only way to correct this would be surgery... and it would have to be done in Nairobi (Kenya) as no one in Uganda can fix it. Problem is this man paid about a million shillings to the bone setter and doesn't have the money to go to Kenya to have it fixed. This is something that is also seen very commonly at the hospital here.
High Infant Mortality
I did not see this at the hospital, but a friend who is a nurse was telling me how sad the children's hospital here was. Due to so many home births there are often complications like pneumonia and the hospital may or may not have the tools to treat the child.... or if the power goes out all of the oxygen for the kids stops working. And power outages are quite frequent.
Mbarara was overall a great trip, and I enjoyed getting to know the AIM missionaries there. I also enjoyed the temperature as it is significantly cooler than Kampala.... and I wore my fleece jacket 2 days in a row. I was actually cold cause it stayed in the low 70s all day! I know you all in Chicago are thinking I am a pansy... BUT when you are use to 80s constantly 70 is cold! It is a much less busy town than Kampala and it seems to overall be much cleaner which is nice!
Here are some pictures from my trip!
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| This is a typical row of store fronts in Uganda |
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| The market in Mbarara - this is much cleaner than the one near me |
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| The sweet kitty - Mikey - that decided to cuddle with me - see cold enough for a blanket! |
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| The hospital - all outside between buildings - view from PT building, straight is ER, ICU, Surgery, and pharmacy and behind the building to the right are all the patient wards |
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| Physiotherapy treatment room - 3 treatment tables |
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| Exercise room - this is the boy with the injection neuropathy |
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| For all my PT friends - this is the ultrasound machine.... they had an equally awesome and equally old e-stim machine too! |
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| The physical therapists at the hospital |
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| Hanging out with some of the singles on the Mbarara team |
Thats all for now! I miss you all!
