GRID and NEA News

Carpenter – Thursday, November 20

Our work is finished. We can hardly believe it.

The team kicked into “full throttle” for these last two days in Carpenter. There was a massive coordinated effort to serve as many patients as possible. It was a sight to see. Over the past two days, 1700 patients were provided care by our medical, dental, eye and laser teams. Our surgeons have successfully completed 247 hernia repairs.

Patients came from all over Northern Region. There are fewer than twelve doctors to serve three million people in Northern Ghana; we have seventeen doctors on this team. One elderly patient who had his hernia repaired remarked to David that he had never, not once, had a doctor lay a hand on him until today.

There are so many patient stories I could speak of from these last few days. Stories of babies with severe malaria, a child with severe croup we nursed through the night, emergency surgeries being performed, vision being saved, and the list goes on and on.

But there is one young woman whose face I will never forget. This twenty-year-old woman presented to our clinic in Banda with a cloth over her face. She has been suffering with pain and bleeding from here nose for two years. When I looked in her nose there was something in there. It was a mass or a growth of some kind. I tried to remove it but it was fixed down. We brought her to Carpenter where, despite a full roster, our surgeons fit her in and removed the growth. It turned out to be a stone or a piece of metal that had been there for years. At dinner last night David explained to us that the family of this woman were destitute because they had spent all of their money travelling around Ghana for someone to help her. Her siblings had to stop going to school in order for the family to afford these hospital visits. The life of this woman and this family is now changed forever as a result of the most basic procedure.

David summed up this mission by telling us that, in the past, his people would say that they have been forgotten by God and by the rest of the world. Through the work of NEA and the work of the health team (David calls us the “icing on the cake” of their development work) he no longer hears his people say this anymore. They are no longer forgotten.

As we were returning to our rooms exhausted last night, some of us enjoyed a “classic Ghana” moment. An ostrich had escaped and was standing on the driveway refusing to let us pass. Only in Ghana!

This morning we rose early for a devotional service under the gazebo with all the NEA staff. It was a moving time to hear testimony from Ghanaians and from our team about how thankful we are to God and to one another for making this mission possible. This partnership is becoming more and more special to more and more people and we will be sad to say goodbye again.

Right now we are heavy into inventory and cleaning and packing. Tonight there will be a big party with our team, all our Ghanaian volunteers and their families. David says it will be a great party. I asked him what makes a party “great” in Ghana. He responded very quickly, “Lots of meat!”

We will begin our journey home very early tomorrow morning. Now that our work is done, we all wish we could beam ourselves home to our loved ones who we miss very much.

I’d better get back to packing!!

2015 Health Team Updates

Carpenter, November 18
Heroes
Iddrisu’s Story in Photos
Yaara, Nov 12
Asantekwaa, Nov 11
Nyamboi, Nov 10
Carpenter, Nov 9
Carpenter, Nov 8
Accra, Nov 7
Toronto, Nov 6

You know your team is tired when you see team members actually nodding off over their dinner plates. You know your team is tired when you see someone spooning out their morning porridge onto their plate instead of their bowl. (Sorry Angie, but that was really funny!)

Well, it is no wonder that everyone is so tired. The surgical team has completed surgeries on 196 patients and the mobile medical, dental and eye team in Banda Ahenkro provided care care to 1300 patients from thirty-three villages over two days. Yesterday alone, another fourteen patients also received vision-saving laser surgery for glaucoma. The amazing thing about this team is that no one is focused on numbers. We are focused on showing love and compassion and care to one patient at a time.

David Mensah is really happy, as he has now added a fifth ram to his collection. NEA and the team received this gift along with a big pile of yams on behalf of the General Secretary of the ruling Party of Ghana, the President of Ghana, the Paramount Chief of the Banda Traditional Area, as well as a large group of sub-chiefs, two Queen Mothers and the local Member of Parliament. So the name of NEA and the name of our team is travelling far and wide.

And it is a very good name. So good that vehicles started arriving to Carpenter last night with patients who planned to camp out and secure their spot in line for tomorrow’s clinic. At 5:00am there must be at least 100 people already lined up outside the gate. As we pushed through the crowds to get to breakfast I overheard a team member saying, “This is the only time I ever feel like a movie star!”

And so we begin our final two clinics right here on the compound of NEA. We are looking forward to the entire team being together on one site as we complete our mission, and we are really looking forward to access to REAL BATHROOMS (YEAH!!!) while we work. Bring on the Tim Horton’s coffee, Brenda!

This morning is a fresh new day and I hear the laughter of my teammates as they prepare for the day and compare notes on how their diarrhea is coming along. At breakfast, Happy Birthday was sung in 3- or 4- part harmony for our friends Anthony and Lorraine. My heart is full of gratitude for these amazing team members and our Ghanaian volunteers who have worked so hard. My prayer is that we finish well, that we finish strong, that the laughter would continue, and that God would continue to give us health and strength to complete our mission with excellence.

One of our team quotes seems like a fitting end to this morning’s post. Dr. Seuss in The Lorax said,

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

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2015 Health Team Updates

Heroes
Iddrisu’s Story in Photos
Yaara, Nov 12
Asantekwaa, Nov 11
Nyamboi, Nov 10
Carpenter, Nov 9
Carpenter, Nov 8
Accra, Nov 7
Toronto, Nov 6

While there are countless heroic stories I could tell about the tremendous work of this team, I’d like to take a moment to tell you about a few heroes.

Ernestina is a medical assistant running a busy health centre with no doctor. She is in charge of a team of nurses and four midwives. She is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Her only leave is when our team comes to Ghana and she joins us. When I ask her how she does it, how she manages to care for so much sickness, how she witnesses so much death, how she works with so few resources, her answer is always the same: “To care for the sick is the highest calling.” Sometimes, when I have a rough night in our ER at home or a busy week at work, I think of Ernestina, and my attitude changes instantly. Any physician on any of our Ghana Health teams over the past 8 years will tell you that everything they have learned about global health they have learned from Ernestina. She is our hero.

Eric is a nurse anaesthetist (the person who puts you to sleep when you have surgery). He and always on call for anaesthesia at his hospital, day and night. There is no physician anaesthetist. He is a conscientious young man who always wants to do better. Eric arrived yesterday to work along side Dr. Tony (our physician anaesthetist) and Susan (our anaesthetic assistant). This morning at breakfast he told me that he learned more in one day with Dr. Tony than he could have learned in one year. Eric is our hero.

Alexandria is a nurse from Wenchi. I got to know her last November when Susan and I helped to train her, along with 29 other midwives, in newborn resuscitation. Yesterday, she proudly told me that she is setting up her resuscitation equipment at every single delivery she attends, even if it is in a hut. She told me about all the babies she has saved due to her training. She now wants to become a master trainer so that she can teach other these skills. Building capacity is a key objective of NEA’s work. Alexandria is our hero.

Letichia. Letichia is the lead nurse in Nyamboi village. There is never a doctor there. She handles everything. Her biggest challenge right now is that there is no light in the delivery room. At night, she is finding it difficult to hold the flashlight and deliver the baby at the same time. I have a feeling she may soon be the owner of a number of fancy MEC headlamps that most of our team uses to work each day. Providing resources and support to our Ghanaian colleagues is so important to us. Letichia is our hero.

And then there is Dr. David. David was sponsored to go to medical school by NEA and is their first graduate. This brand new physician is just soaking in every moment of this opportunity to work alongside our very experienced physicians and surgeons. He is teaching us so much about the health care system here. He is the future of health care delivery in this area. This mutual exchange of learning and transfer of skills is rich. Dr. David is our hero.

Ghanaian health professionals like Ernestina, Eric, Letichia, Alexandria and Dr. David are the true heroes. They are the dedicated health professionals who do their jobs with compassion and excellence in the face of obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable. And they do this work every day of every month of every year. Working alongside them, learning from one another, deepening our relationships with them, and supporting them with resources are the key reasons why we are here.

And this will be the model of the Carpenter hospital. It will be a hospital run by the best Ghanaian health professionals in Ghana, supported by people like us. There are so many layers to NEA’s plan to bring health care to Northern Ghana. I speak on behalf of every single team member when I say that it a great privilege for us to be called upon by NEA to be here and to be part of the process of moving towards sustainable health care for all.

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2015 Health Team Updates

Iddrisu’s Story in Photos
Yaara, Nov 12
Asantekwaa, Nov 11
Nyamboi, Nov 10
Carpenter, Nov 9
Carpenter, Nov 8
Accra, Nov 7
Toronto, Nov 6

Photojournalist Erika Jensen, volunteer member of 2015 Ghana Health Team, captured Iddrisu’s story in photos. [Read more…] about Iddrisu’s Story in Photos

Yaara — Friday November 13

“Code Blue Nursing Station, Code Blue Nursing Station.”

Our clinic in Yaara had barely begun as these words rang out over the walkie-talkies. Something else out was ringing out too. It was wailing, the wailing of a mother who had lost a child. Iddrisu, a 5 year old child from the Fulani tribe, was our first patient in the nursing station. Somehow Leslie spotted her in a crowd of about 500 people (she saw her foot hanging at a funny angle from behind a tree) and carried her to the nursing station. Lynda’s bedside malaria test was positive, and Dr. Norman and our incredible nurses Joan, Inessa, Ang and Kim had had already started an IV, given Tylenol for a fever of 40.5 and injected her with antimalarials. Now this tiny child had become unresponsive and was having a grand mal seizure and we were running a code blue on her. One of the things the local nurses have taught us here is that a child’s glucose level will drop precipitously in severe malaria. Iddrisu’s sugar level was 0.8, which is incompatible with life. As concentrated sugar was pushed through the IV and Valium administered, the seizure stopped and so did the wailing. By the end of day, the child was eating rice, walking around and ready to go home to the bush where this child lives. Can you imagine? My translator told me that the mother was going around the village saying, “These people bring our children back from the dead.” We thank God that we were in that village on that moment of that day to save this little life.

I don’t tell this story to pat ourselves on the back. We just did what we would have done in any emergency room back home. I tell it to remind us and remind our supporters that this region needs a hospital. We must help them.

That was the beginning of the biggest day we had ever had with our mobile team. Twelve tribes gathered for this clinic travelling long distances to get to Yaara. Carol, who leads our logistics and operations, shared with the team that today’s clinic was like a symphony. Everyone did their part so well that a beautiful harmony was created. This symphony managed to see all of the twelve tribes that came, and our preliminary numbers indicate that this was 650 people. On top of that, hundreds and hundreds with minor complaints were treated and released by our triage nurses.

Martin and team had a very special case in the eye clinic today. David requested drops for a patient with recurrent eye ulcers. Martin said he had better see the patient. The patient came to the clinic but ran away in fear when he saw Martin. He was retrieved and he finally sat quietly on Moses’ lap while Martin examined him and provided the medicine he needed to heal this eye ulcer. David was so happy that his dog wouldn’t suffer any longer. Yup … even the dogs need us! Martin said the look on the face of the next patient waiting to be seen after the dog was just priceless.

Tony reported that the surgical team had the biggest day ever. Due to some accidental “double bookings,” the team didn’t even get to dinner until 9:00pm. The patients had come from so far that they just decided to keep operating. The were “knackered” and they were “gutted”. (These are two of my new favourite words I’ve learned from our British friends that reflect a very special level of exhaustion.) We are thankful that all the surgeries, including two children, went well with no complications. Tony is one star anaesthetist having to adjust and adapt for the many challenges that a Ghanaian OR presents.

We say goodbye to our photojournalist Erika today. She has taken 17,000 pictures of the incredible work being done in this place. We will miss her but know her work will be used to tell the story of NEA so that more and more people can get involved and so that our dream of a hospital will become a reality.

I was going to close with one of the inspirational quotes that are handed to every team member and volunteer at 3:00pm every day. However, Kyle and Carly in the dental station received their own inspiration message from a patient that trumps any quote from any famous person. A woman from one of the twelve tribes approached Kyle with these words:

I pray you will have a safe journey home and that God will protect your family. I thank God that he has given you a good life so that you can come to Ghana. And I hope you will come back.

Much love to our friends and families and colleagues back at home. Your comments continue to be texted to me so I can read them out at breakfast and dinner, and they make us all well up with emotion as we are missing all our friends and family very much.

See more of Erika Jensen’s photos of Iddrisu’s story.
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2015 Health Team Updates

Yaara, Nov 12
Asantekwaa, Nov 11
Nyamboi, Nov 10
Carpenter, Nov 9
Carpenter, Nov 8
Accra, Nov 7
Toronto, Nov 6

My eyelids are falling quickly so tonight I will just share a few unique highlights from a wonderfully full and productive day in the life of the Ghana Health Team.

• Kyle performed a very difficult and complicated dental procedure on a woman a number of years ago. He has seen her in Yaara every year since and always worried that she now has a phobia of going to the dentist. Today she approached his station, pulled out a little black bag and handed him 12 fresh guinea fowl eggs to thank him for helping her all those years ago.
• Sheetal was counselling a patient who was receiving medication for neck pain due to carrying heavy loads on her head. The bowl of water she carries is particularly heavy as she has many children. When Sheetal asked her how many children she replied, “I have 7 children … no … I have 8 children because you are now my child.”
• GBP (general body pain) is an official diagnosis here, as is GOK (God only knows).
• Elena, our student volunteer, pulled her first tooth today. (Note to Shelagh: she is drinking LOTS of water!)
• We learned about a neat “Ghanaian find your phone app” today. When Carol lost her phone in a crowd of hundreds, she simply told one local volunteer and in 20 minutes her phone was in her hand.
• Carlye saw a woman who was 11 months pregant. Recognizing there was a miscommunication she asked her translator to clarify. The corrected answer was that she was 12 months pregnant.
• You know you are desperate when you see doctors wiping their brows with lemon scented Lysol cleaning wipes just to try and get a moment’s relief from the heat while asking one another if we think they are carcinogenic.
• Dr. Sue was thanked and blessed by a woman who she treated for an infection that was preventing her from getting pregnant 2.5 years ago. In her arms was her 2.4 year old daughter and she was due to deliver again soon.
• Toylin had some issues with grounding the new laser and couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Nothing made sense until her volunteer, looking at the situation, asked the patient to take off his shoes which instantly solved the problem. He had small nails holding the sides of his sandal to the soles of his sandals so the machine was grounding itself through him. All is well. No defibrillation required.
• Carlye was counselling a patient with a swollen knee only to hear herself suggest he apply ice to it four times a day.
• We left our photographer Erika in Yaara today (on purpose). She spent the night in the village under David’s supervision so she could take more pictures of life in this remote village of Yaara. For those of you who have not read David’s book, this is the village where David was sent to after his father died. The harsh life and maltreatment he received there forced this boy, at the age of 10, to escape on foot travelling over day through the bush to find his mother. The team was privileged to have a walking tour of the village including a visit to the house he lived in. It was a 8×5 foot room.
• I asked Magdi how many hernias were done today and his response was, “We were too busy to even stop and count!”
• Joan and I had a little 7 year old boy Joshua following us around all day. Joan is his Canadian grandmother and I am his Canadian mother because, like Elvis, we saved him from severe pneumonia in 2009.

  

  
  Oh, and I should mention that Elvis has left the building!
• And finally, I was given a very special gift to take home to Canada: my own personal rooster. Graham … please prepare a spot for him!

Until next time!

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2015 Health Team Updates

Asantekwaa, Nov 11
Nyamboi, Nov 10
Carpenter, Nov 9
Carpenter, Nov 8
Accra, Nov 7
Toronto, Nov 6

Elvis is a toddler we brought back with us from Nyamboi with severe pneumonia. He became so unwell late last night that at one point there were 6 doctors and 4 nurses supporting Dr. Jo and Joan who were looking after him. We finally left him on oxygen with mom in our surgical ward at midnight and prayed he would survive the night. This morning his fever was down and he was no longer requiring his oxygen. Tonight he is running around the courtyard ready to return home tomorrow. Life.

All team members reported to breakfast at 0600 feeling strong and healthy. The surgical team set to work early and had a full day of hernia repairs. Just as they closed up and left for dinner at 7:30pm one of the patients booked for surgery tomorrow developed a strangulated hernia. Back to the OR. Life.

Martin and Marion began the laser eye program today. Six patients received vision-saving laser surgery and Dr. Toylin has a full list for tomorrow. Martin said he had so much fun playing “laser tag” all day while Gene Paisley, Brenda’s dad, watched on.

The medical, dental and eye teams hit the road for Asantekwa. The crowds were massive and we were anxious to get to work; however protocol prevailed. The drums were beating and the women were dancing with joy over our arrival and we were expected to join in (quite a sight). After the dance, the chief presented us with a ram, yams, oranges, apples and bananas and could not stop expressing his gratitude. I had the pleasure of presenting some of our rookie team members who represented the different sectors of our clinic to the chief today including Dr. Tom (physician), Valerie (Nursing), Eni (Pharmacy), Dr. Kristel (Eye team), Dr. Ambareen (Surgery) and Elena (volunteers) — all who bravely stepped forward in front of the chief, Queen Mother and elders of the village. We, too, presented gifts and a comical moment ensued when Dr. Tom, presenting to the Queen Mother, offered the gift to the wrong woman! The villagers thought that was hilarious.

Our physician team was all together today in one room which was lots of fun. Once again, before set-up was complete, a critical incident occurred when an elderly woman collapsed unresponsive on the floor. She was treated and was able to go home later in the day. Life.

We had a special moment together when Dr. Bill led us in a moment of silence at 11:00 and all of our patients stood with us.

The eye team functioned amazingly well without their chiefs Dr. Martin and Marion, and the patients they could not get to will make the 2-hour trek to Yaara to be seen tomorrow.

Today was the first day our dental team didn’t get rained on. They finally had to retreat to an indoor classroom (94 degrees F) as the temperature outside was just too unbearable. All in all, our team saw just shy of 500 patients and at least that many were seen and treated by our wonderful triage team of Beth, Leslie and Val. What a tough job they have screening these massive crowds. Pharmacy finished in record time at 4:30 and we hit the road for home well before dark.

I do wish I could end this blog with a happy ending, but I cannot. Lydia died in the clinic today. Lydia was 22 years old and fell ill a week ago. She went to two different hospitals in the North and was sent home without treatment. I’m not sure she was even seen by a doctor. Her family, hearing we were nearby, carried her to our clinic. Despite aggressive resuscitation with our state of the art drugs and equipment, we could not save her. She arrived too late. Our local nurses, who had never witnessed CPR, defibrillation and resuscitation asked me why it is that we all cried when someone we didn’t even know died. A question worth pondering.

Lydia’s death is unacceptable. The deaths that would have occurred, like Elvis and countless others, had we not been here these 3 days are unacceptable too. While it is difficult for us to process the reality of this place, it is a reality that we all must face. This region needs a well-run hospital if these unnecessary deaths are to be prevented. After 8 years of our health team’s involvement here, GRID and NEA are moving forward to build and staff a model hospital right here in Carpenter that will be supported by people like us. Until this vision becomes a reality, people like Lydia will continue to die unnecessarily. Please check our the hospital plans on the GRID website and help us help NEA get this hospital built. Please.

After a delicious dinner (including mushroom soup from the NEA mushroom farm and fresh Tilapia from the fish pond) and wonderful speeches from David and the team leaders, and … wait for it … a priceless Girl Guide song called “Lavatory Man” sung by the one and only Leslie, we retired to our residence to visit with one another. With Michael strumming the tunes on the guitar, Dr. Sue cracking out a big puzzle for us to work on, and Dr. Anthony making instant coffee, we are all refreshed and ready for whatever tomorrow brings.

At 3:00pm every day, Kim drops us off an inspirational quote prepared by former team member Dr Sarah from Stouffville. It is a fitting ending to today’s very long blog:

It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power and may not be in your time that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. — M. Gandhi

PS: we are loving your messages to the team and they are all being relayed. I’ve officially designated Dr. Carlye to read them out to the team as I turn into a blubbering mess when I try to read them. Surprise, surprise.

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2015 Health Team Updates

Nyamboi, Nov 10
Carpenter, Nov 9
Carpenter, Nov 8
Accra, Nov 7
Toronto, Nov 6

In the 8 years since I have been coming to Ghana I have never heard Dr. David Mensah, Director of NEA, say “it is hot”. Well today he said it. Dr. Kyle’s thermometer read 100 degrees in the shade and 120 degrees in the sun. That’s hot.

The surgical program had a fantastic first full day and is in full swing. What an incredible team, led by Dr. Magdi and supported by a big team of NEA volunteers. Together, they changed the lives of over 30 people in one day. One of our surgeons, Dr. Kathryn, joined us in the village today and added another 44 patients to the list. Dr. Kat happens to specialize in pediatric urology and wouldn’t you know it, we had a little boy with a urologic problem. In Canada, a pediatric urology consult would take months. I was able to consult with her in 1 minute.

The medical/dental/eye team had a fantastic day in Nyamboi villlage. As our team approached the chief and elders to greet them, the village linguist asked each team member to state their name, after which he told it to the drummer who “drummed” the names. What a welcome.

We saw huge volumes of patients despite a 30-minute rainstorm. It was so fierce that is was unsafe to be outside, so within minutes, all the patients were crammed into all our consultation rooms, pharmacy, and nursing station. Classic Ghana. Our newcomers were oriented to the most important procedure of using a latrine (a cement floor with a deep hole … and lots of flies buzzing down in that hole).

The eye clinic is running so well and they are seeing so much glaucoma that Dr. Martin is starting his laser surgeries tomorrow instead of waiting until next week!

It was a great day and once again, I’m reflecting on how special it is to watch this many people collaborate together with such joy and such energy toward a common purpose. When we gather for dinner in the dining hall at the end of a very long day, the room is full of conversation and laughter as we share our stories with one another.

To those of you who are commenting on this blog, I am receiving the comments and messages you are sending and I and reading them out at breakfast each morning. We are renaming the blog “Carly’s blog” since she is getting the most messages. By the way, Carly’s family will be thrilled to know she pulled her first tooth today!

Until next time …

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