Posts tagged doctors

 Photo: Dr. Jill Seaman has spent decades working to bring modern medicine to South Sudan.  © Marco Grob Risk Takers | National Geographic Feature Dr. Jill Seman has worked with MSF in the past, bringing the best treatment for Kala Azar in South Sudan. Below is a snippet of her interview with National Geographic on what it means to be a war zone doctor: Your clinic’s been bombed and burned. But you insist you’re not a risk taker. I’m not. I’m serious. I have a passion for health care and for Sudan. I can tell you lots of things that have happened that are scary, like a massacre in a town just north of us that killed maybe 200 people in a couple of hours. They just shot at people, at women washing their clothes. But that has nothing to do with why I’m here. But you are there. And it is risky, no? The thing is, it’s not that I’m taking risks. Everybody’s taking risks. Life is a risk. Everybody who lives there, they know that life could be gone in an hour. And yet they live. And they are happy. And I get to touch millions of people and hopefully help them. How could I be more lucky?

 Photo: Dr. Jill Seaman has spent decades working to bring modern medicine to South Sudan.  © Marco Grob

Risk Takers | National Geographic Feature

Dr. Jill Seman has worked with MSF in the past, bringing the best treatment for Kala Azar in South Sudan. Below is a snippet of her interview with National Geographic on what it means to be a war zone doctor:

Your clinic’s been bombed and burned. But you insist you’re not a risk taker.

I’m not. I’m serious. I have a passion for health care and for Sudan. I can tell you lots of things that have happened that are scary, like a massacre in a town just north of us that killed maybe 200 people in a couple of hours. They just shot at people, at women washing their clothes. But that has nothing to do with why I’m here.

But you are there. And it is risky, no?

The thing is, it’s not that I’m taking risks. Everybody’s taking risks. Life is a risk. Everybody who lives there, they know that life could be gone in an hour. And yet they live. And they are happy. And I get to touch millions of people and hopefully help them. How could I be more lucky?

I leave with a strange feeling inside; this is something totally exceptional for me, to see a human body in this state [bones splintered, muscle crushed]. To understand the challenges faced by the surgeons and medical team with each case, to admire their skill, calmness and dedication to doing the best they possibly can for each and every patient. I take my hat off to them.
Biomedical engineer Ben King observes an amputation and discovers more about humanity than he expected.
I take a couple of deeps breaths. I tell myself ‘everything will be okay’. What on Earth am I doing? And then I remember. Twice whilst I was in Uganda, the distinctive MSF Toyota land-cruiser, adorned with MSF flag and stickers and no weapons logos and giant radio antenna zoomed past me and I got butterflies in my tummy.
British doctor Emily Wise, on what it’s like preparing for her new MSF role in Uzbekistan. Please leave your comments and questions for Emily in the box below her post.
Photo: Francis Gatluak, one-time MSF patient, now the manager of the tuberculosis program at MSF’s hospital in Leer, South Sudan. South Sudan 2012 © John Stanmyer/VII Photo The Patient Becomes the Healer Three decades ago, when Francis Gatluak was a boy, civil war forced his family to flee their small village in Unity State, in the northern reaches of what is now South Sudan. He was diagnosed with kala azar, a disease that thrives in poor, unstable areas with limited health care.   Francis endured the difficult SSG treatment at MSF’s nearby camp, and recovered. Since he spoke some English, the staff asked him if he would stay and work with them as a translator. He did this for a few months, developing a desire to do more. “I started to learn about how I can help the patient,” he says. “If there are people who can give medication, I can also help to do the job, and help the community.” Today, he is a nurse in his twenty-third year working with MSF. He has gone on MSF assignments in other African countries and recently returned to the Leer hospital, where he is now in charge of the tuberculosis ward. And he recently traveled to Washington, DC, to speak on the organization’s behalf when MSF was awarded the highly-esteemed 2012 J. William Fulbright Award for International Understanding.

Photo: Francis Gatluak, one-time MSF patient, now the manager of the tuberculosis program at MSF’s hospital in Leer, South Sudan. South Sudan 2012 © John Stanmyer/VII Photo

The Patient Becomes the Healer

Three decades ago, when Francis Gatluak was a boy, civil war forced his family to flee their small village in Unity State, in the northern reaches of what is now South Sudan. He was diagnosed with kala azar, a disease that thrives in poor, unstable areas with limited health care.  

Francis endured the difficult SSG treatment at MSF’s nearby camp, and recovered. Since he spoke some English, the staff asked him if he would stay and work with them as a translator. He did this for a few months, developing a desire to do more. “I started to learn about how I can help the patient,” he says. “If there are people who can give medication, I can also help to do the job, and help the community.”


Today, he is a nurse in his twenty-third year working with MSF. He has gone on MSF assignments in other African countries and recently returned to the Leer hospital, where he is now in charge of the tuberculosis ward. And he recently traveled to Washington, DC, to speak on the organization’s behalf when MSF was awarded the highly-esteemed 2012 J. William Fulbright Award for International Understanding.

Photo: Looted and burned houses in Pinga after fighting between armed groups caused the majority of the town’s population—together with many of MSF’s Congolese staff—to flee the area in October. DRC 2012 © MSF Violence in North Kivu, DRC, Displaces Thousands, Forces Majority of MSF Personnel to Evacuate Active fighting has hit the town of Pinga in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) once again, forcing 20,000 inhabitants and the majority of Congolese personnel employed by MSF to flee for the second time in six weeks. Armed groups have clashed in the last few days, causing widespread panic and alarm in the area. Fearing for their lives, people grabbed whatever they could carry and ran into the surrounding forests. While displaced from their homes and villages, people’s access to health care is extremely limited. Some of those wounded in the fighting were brought to the MSF-run hospital 50 kilometers [about 31 miles] away in Mweso where doctors treated 24 people for violent trauma. Twelve more managed to reach the Mpeti health center 18 kilometers [about 11 miles] away from Pinga. “What we see in Pinga is the tip of the iceberg,” said Grace Tang, MSF head of mission. “This kind of violence and mass displacement is happening throughout the province of North Kivu. We’re trying to respond as best we can in very difficult and challenging circumstances.”

Photo: Looted and burned houses in Pinga after fighting between armed groups caused the majority of the town’s population—together with many of MSF’s Congolese staff—to flee the area in October. DRC 2012 © MSF

Violence in North Kivu, DRC, Displaces Thousands, Forces Majority of MSF Personnel to Evacuate


Active fighting has hit the town of Pinga in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) once again, forcing 20,000 inhabitants and the majority of Congolese personnel employed by MSF to flee for the second time in six weeks.

Armed groups have clashed in the last few days, causing widespread panic and alarm in the area. Fearing for their lives, people grabbed whatever they could carry and ran into the surrounding forests. While displaced from their homes and villages, people’s access to health care is extremely limited. Some of those wounded in the fighting were brought to the MSF-run hospital 50 kilometers [about 31 miles] away in Mweso where doctors treated 24 people for violent trauma. Twelve more managed to reach the Mpeti health center 18 kilometers [about 11 miles] away from Pinga.

“What we see in Pinga is the tip of the iceberg,” said Grace Tang, MSF head of mission. “This kind of violence and mass displacement is happening throughout the province of North Kivu. We’re trying to respond as best we can in very difficult and challenging circumstances.”

Behind the Scenes: MSF Casualty Training

Working in the field involves situations that require our staff to make quick, smart, lifesaving decisions. We conduct training exercises to prepare our staff for casualty incidents. Watch this video of an exercise that involved 60 staff members from 32 countries playing the parts of medical staff, logisticians, and patients.

Our patient from the other day first presented to an outside clinic, where there is no surgeon, when he still felt too weak to stand several days after being beaten with fists and sticks. He was admitted to the clinic with a swollen, distended abdomen and increasing pain, given intravenous fluids, evaluated with an X-ray and a blood count, suggesting blood loss, followed by a phone call to our project chief and a discussion with me about transfer. At home this patient would have had a CT scan to identify whether he had an injury to the spleen and/or liver, plus checked for signs of other injuries that would suggest he needed surgery. With a stable liver or spleen injury, he would be placed at bed rest to minimize the chance of recurrent bleeding. Here in the Central African Republic the choice was to risk leaving him at a facility that had no capability for an operation or transfer him to Paoua by LandRover with the risk of making any potential bleeding worse, as the trip is slightly less jarring than playing a game of rugby. We told them to send him over as soon as they could. Due to a combination of vehicle availability, road conditions and security issues, it was a full 24 hours before he arrived in Paoua, now almost six days from his initial injury.
Excerpt from MSF surgeon, David Lauter’s, Wait, Watch, Act field blog post.
Please SHARE this call for entry with any film-makers and photographers you know who have produced work celebrating the cultures of people in any of the 60+ countries Médecins Sans Frontières have worked in since 1971.Visit http://www.msf.org.au/filmfest for entry details. Thanks for your support!

Please SHARE this call for entry with any film-makers and photographers you know who have produced work celebrating the cultures of people in any of the 60+ countries Médecins Sans Frontières have worked in since 1971.

Visit http://www.msf.org.au/filmfest for entry details.

Thanks for your support!

Sleeping on the ground in day-old, fishy, muddy, sweaty clothes isn’t my idea of a great night out, but still it gave me time and reason to reflect and understand the people I’m working with better. Not the staff, though yes them too somewhat, but the patients. The oldies that come with general body pains that we send away with no medication, telling them its normal to have body pains after working in the fields cultivating, carrying 20kg drums of water for miles on their heads, cutting and carrying wood for miles just in order to live.

Kate Chapman is a nurse working with MSF in Matter, Ethiopia. Kate and her team have an unexpected camping adventure and gain further understanding of how local people live when they get stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Click here to read the rest of Kate’s blog.

Click here to learn more about Doctors Without Borders projects in Ethiopia.

Then, injured people started coming from everywhere. We had to come up with other ways of accommodating people, even if it meant putting beds on the terrace. Sometimes the wounded didn’t arrive during the day because of fighting, because the roads were blocked, or because traveling to the hospital was risky. Sometimes they came at night or at dawn.
Surgical specialist Anna Nowak has completed more than 20 missions with MSF. She has just returned from Syria, where she helped to set up a refugee hospital project.

MSF has been working on the ground in Syria for the past two months, trying to provide humanitarian assistance to people affected by the conflict. With the help of a group of Syrian doctors, in six days a team was able to transform an empty house into an emergency hospital where wounded people could be operated on and hospitalized.
This is…what we’re here for: responding to the most urgent and immediate medical needs. It is incredible what we have been able to achieve, but it’s not enough. There is always something more that can be done, and we have to fight to make sure these people have what they need, not just to survive, but to give them dignity, give them quality of life, make sure that they can maintain the spirit that they have.

Helen Ottens-Patterson, from the United Kingdom, is a nurse and Doctors Without Borders medical coordinator in Upper Nile State’s Maban County, South Sudan.

Here she speaks about the overwhelming situation of refugees in South Sudan.

If you missed our Doctors Without Borders South Sudan webcast last night, the full recording is here. Learn more about the situation in South Sudan.

If you missed our Doctors Without Borders South Sudan webcast last night, the full recording is here.

Learn more about the situation in South Sudan.

Reblog to help us raise awareness of the plight of Sudanese refugees living in appalling conditions in camps in South Sudan. They are falling ill and dying at rates alarmingly above accepted international standards for emergencies. Join us next week for a live webcast discussion on the refugee crisis in South Sudan, featuring recently returned emergency field staff. Wednesday, August 29, 8p ET. Register here.

Reblog to help us raise awareness of the plight of Sudanese refugees living in appalling conditions in camps in South Sudan. They are falling ill and dying at rates alarmingly above accepted international standards for emergencies.

Join us next week for a live webcast discussion on the refugee crisis in South Sudan, featuring recently returned emergency field staff. Wednesday, August 29, 8p ET. Register here.

Cholera Epidemic Escalates Along Sierra Leone and Guinea Border The onset of the rainy season in West Africa has caused an increase in cholera cases on both sides of the border between Sierra Leone and Guinea. More than 13,000 people have been admitted to hospitals in the capital cities of Freetown and Conakry since February, when the disease was declared an epidemic. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently has more than 800 beds available to treat cholera patients and is opening additional cholera treatment centers and rehydration points in collaboration with local authorities. Cholera, which spreads through contaminated water and flourishes in unsanitary conditions, causes days of diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach cramps, and leaves patients visibly emaciated after. It is a punishing affliction. “I want to die,” whispers a patient in MSF’s treatment center in the Mabella slum in Freetown, Sierra Leone. “I’m tired, tired of this disease.”Photo: A 10-year-old patient recovers from cholera at Donka Cholera Treatment Center in Conakry, Guinea. Guinea 2012 © Holly Pickett/MSF

Cholera Epidemic Escalates Along Sierra Leone and Guinea Border

The onset of the rainy season in West Africa has caused an increase in cholera cases on both sides of the border between Sierra Leone and Guinea. More than 13,000 people have been admitted to hospitals in the capital cities of Freetown and Conakry since February, when the disease was declared an epidemic. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently has more than 800 beds available to treat cholera patients and is opening additional cholera treatment centers and rehydration points in collaboration with local authorities.

Cholera, which spreads through contaminated water and flourishes in unsanitary conditions, causes days of diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach cramps, and leaves patients visibly emaciated after. It is a punishing affliction. “I want to die,” whispers a patient in MSF’s treatment center in the Mabella slum in Freetown, Sierra Leone. “I’m tired, tired of this disease.”

Photo: A 10-year-old patient recovers from cholera at Donka Cholera Treatment Center in Conakry, Guinea.
Guinea 2012 © Holly Pickett/MSF

Take Two (Or, My Last Day in Chad) “Today I leave Chad. It has been a hectic ending, and I will work until I board the plane tonight—but even in all of the craziness I have had time to reflect on my last few months here, and the impact that we have as a humanitarian organization. “At one point in the week I took a break with our local health promoter. We were sitting outside a tent of the malnutrition hospital, sipping painfully sweet tea, when we heard the cries of a mother who had just lost her child. We live in the hospital compound, and these are the cries that often wake me at night. “Youssouf, the health promoter, said, “She cries, and then with all of the other mothers she will pray. Pray that the child will return as a bird or as a tree, but not as a human.” I pondered the cultural significance of this, wondered if it is bad luck to return two consecutive times as a human—and in the end I asked for clarification. “No one,” he said, “wants to have to do this again. No one should ever have to be a human in Chad—better to be a bird or a tree.” The words stayed with me. They gave me a better insight into why mothers refuse to have their children transferred to the hospital.”Read the rest of Trich Newport’s blog from her time working with MSF in Chad. Photo: MSF staff care for a severely malnourished child at the Massakory intensive therapeutic feeding center, where Trish worked Chad 2012 © Stephanie Christaki

Take Two (Or, My Last Day in Chad)

“Today I leave Chad. It has been a hectic ending, and I will work until I board the plane tonight—but even in all of the craziness I have had time to reflect on my last few months here, and the impact that we have as a humanitarian organization.

“At one point in the week I took a break with our local health promoter. We were sitting outside a tent of the malnutrition hospital, sipping painfully sweet tea, when we heard the cries of a mother who had just lost her child. We live in the hospital compound, and these are the cries that often wake me at night.

“Youssouf, the health promoter, said, “She cries, and then with all of the other mothers she will pray. Pray that the child will return as a bird or as a tree, but not as a human.” I pondered the cultural significance of this, wondered if it is bad luck to return two consecutive times as a human—and in the end I asked for clarification. “No one,” he said, “wants to have to do this again. No one should ever have to be a human in Chad—better to be a bird or a tree.” The words stayed with me. They gave me a better insight into why mothers refuse to have their children transferred to the hospital.”

Read the rest of Trich Newport’s blog from her time working with MSF in Chad.

Photo: MSF staff care for a severely malnourished child at the Massakory intensive therapeutic feeding center, where Trish worked

Chad 2012 © Stephanie Christaki