Saturday, April 30, 2016

E-3 Worldwide, Mobile Clinic, Nyalugwa

Today, Sat. the 30th, we had the privilege of joining E-3 at one of their mobile clinics. We traveled to the village of Nyalugwa, set up 'shop' and saw 571 patients in about 4 1/2 hours. The only way that could happen is the organization of Sam and Malla Kawale and the E-3 clinic. We had multiple nurses, assorted other helpers ('crowd control', chef, translators), and 9 'prescribing providers' (7 clinical officers, a 'just finished med school' doctor from UK and myself.)  Everything went very smoothly - Malla had the pharmacy organized, along with the triage station and the malaria testing area. Kelley McGowan and Joey Swartz did an amazing job with the malaria testing, and Joey even found time to take the photos!  We used the local school and the church. You can see how well worn the school is - pay special attention to the black boards! It is now the start of the dry season, but is warmer than usual and it rained today - a 'shower', not a true African rain, but still, it was strange. I had an amazing translator - Chikonde ('Chico') and he was quick to learn the 'follow up' questions. He was delightful.  We saw ~100 malaria cases, and used all the malaria tests (150). One very sick child was taken to the district hospital, but most of the others were easily treated by the well-stocked pharmacy.

Enjoy the photos!
Getting the pharmacy set up.
Boys being boys, note the galimoto (the home made car the boy is holding).

Hendrix (clinical officer) with a patient.
A couple more of the clinical officers with a patient.
Armando (facing forward) is another clinical officer, his patient has his back to the camera.
Here is my station. At least I got a real chair and table. You can barely seen Chikonde on my left.
Kelley McGowan at the malaria station, ready to prick some fingers!
Lines and lines! So many people
Patients seeing more clinical officers.
Me again, with another patient. Note the torn sign hanging from the rafters and the 'not so black' black board. 
Clara, doctor (just finished her last year) from the UK, with her translator, seeing a patient. What a great experience for her and what a nice help for the rest of us!
The usual chaos at the end of a clinic - everyone came to pharmacy to help get the meds out to the patients.
Kelley McGowan looking like she has spent the day pricking fingers! 
Chikonde and I, at the end of the day. He was great!



Thanks to all who have been keeping us in your prayers. Our plan tomorrow is to go to Pothawira in Salima. We may not have internet access (likely will not).  We should return Thursday PM.

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