Save the Children's Katherine Bowles, Director of Health and Nutrition, thanks HTHH's donors and Senator Frist for our leadership and awareness of the food crisis in East Africa today.
Today started as usual with ward rounds, visiting my patients: Stephen, baba with DM and Mr. SO whom we operated on for appendicitis. I really feel sorry for Stephen’s dad.
Then we went to the OR where we had one scheduled surgery and one emergent ex-lap. The scheduled surgery was removal of a breast mass; turned out to be a chocolate cyst (grossly). I really enjoyed having scrubbed in. I started the IV line and first-assisted; also got to close the skin. I really do enjoy surgery especially on days like this when I feel competent; when the operation went well, when I closed skin properly, when I feel I helped the team help a patient.
Then we went to the OR where we had one scheduled surgery and one emergent ex-lap. The scheduled surgery was removal of a breast mass; turned out to be a chocolate cyst (grossly). I really enjoyed having scrubbed in. I started the IV line and first-assisted; also got to close the skin. I really do enjoy surgery especially on days like this when I feel competent; when the operation went well, when I closed skin properly, when I feel I helped the team help a patient.
Politico Playbook: Crisis in the Horn of Africa
Aug 11 2011
CRISIS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA - Dr. Bill Frist, former Senate majority leader, telephoned Playbook after returning from a trip with Dr. Jill Biden to a famine refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border: "The Horn of Africa is undergoing the most acute food-security emergency in the last 25 years - 29,000 kids have died in the last 90 days. The response to the crisis is improving globally, but the magnitude is outstripped the supplies. ... Two issues that I'm stressing: Number one, lives can be saved by both individual Americans, and taxpayers through our government responding and investing. And, number two, our long-term investments over the last 10 years, through the USAID, in the Horn of Africa, have paid off. ... "Dr. Biden is very effective in listening, observing, listening, asking questions, and representing the United States in terms of concern and commitment of support. Because she's not in the political hotbed, for me, who's out of politics, she was a perfect leader for the delegation. ... I have visited refugee camps in Chad and Darfur ... The striking difference here is the lack of access in Somalia, because of a dysfunctional government. There's no access to the millions of people in Somalia, where the famine is worst. Therefore, the refugees all have to go to Ethiopia and Kenya, where there is economic stress and environmental stress. ... The crowding in the refugee camps has resulted in pneumonia and a very rare skin disorder, ictchyosis. The kids are dying of pneumonia and diarrheal diseases. ... Individuals who do want to invest, the easiest place to go is USAID.gov, which has a list of nongovernment organizations."
I have been in Kijabe for almost three weeks and today is the first day I received a hard and fast sign that I am in a developing country. No power. No explanation. On one minute then off the next. It happened in the OR – just a blink – but serves as a reminder that as much as there is available here in Kijabe, more than in many other hospitals in Kenya, it is still a tenuous resource. One that is dependent on the hard work of so many to keep things running as smoothly as possible so that the lights stay on, the available suture will be strong enough to hold a knot, and blood will be available for the patient with anemia who needs to have his spleen out.
Briefing on Dr. Jill Biden's Recent Visit to Kenya
Remarks
Eric P. Schwartz
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Senator Bill Frist, and Special Assistant to the President Gayle Smith
Via Teleconference
Washington, DC
Remarks
Eric P. Schwartz
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Senator Bill Frist, and Special Assistant to the President Gayle Smith
Via Teleconference
Washington, DC
Yesterday, I visited the Dadaab Refugee Complex in eastern Kenya with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. While there, we heard stories from mothers with their children who had lost their husbands. Families who had journeyed for weeks to arrive at the camp malnourished and in dire need of medical assistance. And, worst of all, parents who had heartbreaking stories of losing children in the flight from famine in Somalia.
This week I traveled with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden to refugee camps in eastern Kenya along the Somali border to witness the impact of the most acute food security emergency on earth. We need your help, and your help I promise will make a difference.
Yesterday we visited intake centers just on the border where over 1,500 Somalis who walked for weeks with their starving children (over 29,000 young children have died of malnutrition and disease in Somalia alone over the past 90 days) arrive each day to find food and a safe place to live. But the camps are at capacity (the Dadaab camp has 430,000 refugees today; it was designed for 90,000) and new arrivals are left to fend for themselves on the outskirts of the camp.
Yesterday we visited intake centers just on the border where over 1,500 Somalis who walked for weeks with their starving children (over 29,000 young children have died of malnutrition and disease in Somalia alone over the past 90 days) arrive each day to find food and a safe place to live. But the camps are at capacity (the Dadaab camp has 430,000 refugees today; it was designed for 90,000) and new arrivals are left to fend for themselves on the outskirts of the camp.
Link to CNN's Interview with Anderson Cooper:
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2011/08/08/ac.bill.frist.famine.cnn
Over 29,000 young children have died of malnutrition and disease in Somalia over the past 90 days. We are now on our way to the Horn of Africa to see what more we as a nation can do.
Early this morning, our plane left Washington DC bound for East Africa. I’m flying with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and USAID Administrator Raj Shah to study the famine affecting the lives of over 12 million people, many of them children.
In fact, it is now being called “The Children’s Famine.”
Early this morning, our plane left Washington DC bound for East Africa. I’m flying with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and USAID Administrator Raj Shah to study the famine affecting the lives of over 12 million people, many of them children.
In fact, it is now being called “The Children’s Famine.”
FGHL Blog: Omo Aisagbonhi - Cases from Ogbomoso, Nigeria: Bowen University Teaching Hospital
Aug 02 2011
We had orthopedic clinic today. Many of our adult patients presented with fractures secondary to road traffic accidents.