Emily Prince and I arrived in Malawi on June 11th, after 2 days of flight delays and cancelations - but we made it! The following couple of days was spent in getting the groudwork laid for our first clinic - renewing my medical license, buying meds, buying groceries, getting the car insured, etc. Julie Hoskison arrived Friday at ~ noon, and Saturday morning we were in the Maula Prison for a clinic. The rules used to be 'no photos' but Charles has worked so hard to have wells dug and two new clinic building built that they were happy to have him take photos. We saw about 190 patients. Lucky Nyrenda came to help as clinical officier, Selina was the pharmacist, assisted by Emily (who will be on her own as the pharmacist soon, I am sure), Julie did some wound care, rash evaluation, and incision and drainage and saw some patients. We had a good day. The prisoners looked as well if not better than when we were here last, although malnutrition and scabies are still huge problems. Many of these guys are HIV positive, but they are getting their medications. Several had TB but were being treated, also. There are currently only two little children in the prison (with their moms) and both of them were positive for malaria! So much that we see in the prison we cannot fix - 'eye problems' (mostly cataracts but a couple nasty infectious processes), chronic pains, and a goodly number of perirectal abscesses / fistulas that had been present for years (HIV patients). I bought soap, made by the prisoners, to be given to the prisoners.
Intermed pharmacy DID find some vitamins for us (after telling us they were out for months) but there were no medications for asthma. We did find some cough syrup with terbutaline and used that heavily! We had only little guy (a child of one of the guard staff) that was involved in an altercation with another child and came to the clinic. It was a productive day and I was happy to see my friends, Clifford, Jollyn and Selina. Charles had picked us up from the airport so I had already given him greetings. Charles is the Malawian in charge of the prison ministry. He has done a great job - the new clinic building is AWESOME - seperate rooms, windows with bars, a 'lab' with a sink, staff toilets. He also got financing for an HIV clinic (VCT - voluntary counseling and testing), and built two wells. If anyone reading this blog has a heart to help prisoners, let me know. It is difficult to fund raise for them, but Charles is financially reliable.
I am hoping the photos load!
Patient (back to camera) with me and Jollyn. Note the bars of soap on the table. One of the new consultation rooms.
Julie Hoskison and Clifford in the lab area that we used for wound care and some basic labs.
Lucky with a patient (a guard). Another new consultation room.
Selina and Emily using another consultation room as the pharmacy.
Patients waiting outside the pharmacy for their meds.
Another patient
He had quite the story to tell!
Staff child after fighting with another child.
Clifford and Julie
Outside as prisoners line up to be seen and for meds.
The team - and an awesome team they are! In front of the new clinic.
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