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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Our very own Iron Woman .... Joanna Thomson

Joanna Thomson, Perth Physiotherapist and director of Rose Charities Australia, is training up to carry out an iron-woman event for Rose Charities Australia programs to assist disabled people in Cambodia. Joanna is setting up a poly-rehap unit for the Cambodian poor in conjunction with Rose Charities Cambodia and Operation FIRST Cambodia. First-Rose ( www.FirstRose.org ) currently is Cambodias leading family rehab surgery unit, providing free or cheap operations for cleft lip and palate, burns victims (including acid burns) and other disabilities. It operates from a proper Ministry of Health facilities

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Touching note from volunteer in Port au Prince

For those who have not met him, Dr. Pargat Bhurji is a pediatrician at Children's Hospital BC and a frequent and generous volunteer with Rose Charities. Dr. Bhurji and RN Kirby Pirckard recently arrived in Port au Prince with the latest Rose emergecy aid mission. Dr. Bhurji has just sent back this brief, touching message.

I am fortunate to be on this mission. A lot of work needs to be done, Sick, tiny dehydrated babies are at the top of the list. When I first arrived I worked with a French pediatrician, setting up tents for pediatric and neonatal care. Every day we get more than 10 admissions plus over 100 outpatients. Despite lack of proper resources, medication and equipment we are able to help.

On my birthday I saw a 32 week old boy whose parents wanted to name Pargat! After many tries to pronounce it in Creole we settled on calling him Peter. It was the best birthday gift ever.

I am glad that God gave me this oppotunity to serve.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Letter from Haiti

The following is a message from one of our volunteer nurses in Haiti:  "Its sad here but intensely beautiful even with all the destruction and poverty.  They have beautiful landscape and people.  I feel like what I’m doing here isn’t enough...  I had a woman who told me she had been pregnant for 12 months...I was so busy, I assumed a doc would look into it but I don’t think one had the chance.  Supposedly women often have horrible fibroids in their uterus or ovaries or something and so they think they’re pregnant.   It’s so disorganized, bad writing everywhere...not enough pain meds...education not getting through to patients but of course wonderful things happening too.  It’s more medical poverty issues and not so much trauma but i do have some ortho patients and an amputation.    Yesterday I took care of a mother and baby and the mother was hiv positive but wasn’t telling anyone.  The baby was 22 days old and only weighed 5lbs which would be a birth weight even to be concerned about.  So mother hadn’t breastfed understandably and a lot of the mothers here over dilute their formula as a way of rationing.  The little guy was malnourished and dehydrated but such a trooper.  I fed him and held him lots and made sure the mother was ok with that.  I’m getting more and more patients each day and a ton of the group is leaving so I’ll probably end up having 12 of my own patients in the next couple of days.  No idea how I am supposed to help anyone when it’s like that but I am trying. 

Our usual day is we wake up in the morning around 6am, have breakfast at 7, take an hour-long bus ride to the hospital.  Then I took at the pieces of paper next to the patients and try to figure out what I can do for them.  It’s mostly antibiotics, pain meds, and then giving meds in a ziploc bag to patients and family and giving them instructions on when to give stuff.  They’re great about it.  We get off at around 5pm so not super long but we don’t take days off unless we are sick.   We take the bus home and we wear masks cuz of all the fires and dust.  It’s good because then I can have a bit of a cry and no one notices. 

The other people I am working with are fantastic.  We have 5 GPs, 3 surgeons, 10 nurses and other randoms.  I’m one of the only non Haitians here.  They thank us for coming seeing as how we have no ties to the community but I don’t really see it like that.   We are all people."