Doctors Without Borders

We advocate for our patients and do everything that we can within our hospital to provide the best standard of care, but it can be quite overwhelming at times when what happens outside of our fences is completely beyond your control.

One of the things I do in these moments to help keep things in perspective, is to take a few moments to walk around the health facilities we have here. I remind myself to focus on all the things that we CAN actually do, and that do make a huge difference.

It is amazing how much is still able to be done right here in our hospital, even with all the constraints on time, resources and people power. At these short stitches in time I just marvel at all the activities that are happening simultaneously at any one moment: you can walk past the ER where people are resuscitated and brought back to life with emergency treatments, then past the out-patient clinics and see patients receiving life-changing mental health counseling and support for the terrible traumas they have endured.

You can stop in at the training tent and see a new generation of dedicated nurses and clinical officers participating so attentively in learning sessions to improve their clinical skills and knowledge, wanting to provide the best standard of care to their patients.

Dr. Saschveen blogs from Tanzania: http://blogs.msf.org/en/staff/blogs/msf-in-tanzania/treating-refugees-in-tanzania-perspective

Two Little Girls

Ian Cross is a doctor from the UK who is currently working at the MSF project in Kutupalong, Bangladesh. The project serves Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar. Here he tells the stories of two little girls who came for treatment at the clinic…

She didn’t see the soldier who fired the shot. Her father was running from the village carrying her in his arms. Her arms were around his neck. The bullet smashed through her right forearm and entered her father’s head, killing him instantly.

She didn’t talk much about what happened next. She crossed the border in to Bangladesh with her mother and little brother. Her arm was too badly damaged for us to treat in our facility at Kutupalong, so we referred her to the Memorial Christian Hospital, a couple of hours away to the north. The surgeons began by fixing the forearm bones. I reviewed her when she returned to the clinic with her arm in a cast. She couldn’t stretch out her fingers because the extensor tendons in her forearm had been destroyed by the bullet.

After a month or so, she was ready for further surgery to reconstruct the tendons. She came to the clinic this morning, proud to show me the result. She could waggle her fingers. She was delighted. Her mother was so grateful for the treatment she received that she asked us to tell the world what had happened to her daughter. How can you be shot through the eye and remain alive? This little girl didn’t see who shot her either.

The bullet entered her skull obliquely, in front of her right ear. The bullet traversed her eyeball and exited through the side of her nose. The eye was completely destroyed of course. The surgeons repaired a hole an inch across between her eye socket and the brain. The sight in her left eye is normal. Although she was unfortunate to have been shot, she was incredibly lucky to survive.

These two little girls managed to reach Bangladesh and received excellent care. But how many more died before they were able to leave Myanmar?

One day while their house was being hit by coalition forces, the boy’s father and uncle, in concern for their little boy, jumped on top of him to protect him. For me it highlighted that a family in Yemen is much the same as a family in New Zealand or Australia. What father or uncle doesn’t want to protect their son or nephew? And in this case they literally put their bodies between the blast and him. Unfortunately, he was still quite burnt down one side of his body, but he will recover with no significant scarring, according to our doctors. I’d never before seen the level of casualties I saw in Saada.

Michael Seawright, MSF Project Coordinator in Yemen http://bit.ly/20tfn2k

Photo by William Daniels

MSF medical staff treat a man who was hit by an arrow at Mpoko airport camp in Bangui, Central African Republic. Around 100,000 people displaced by violence are sheltering at the camp. MSF has provided medical care to about 1,000 people so far. Read more: http://bit.ly/1nqaSzY

Dr. Unni Karunakara started biking the entire length of India, from Srinagar in Kashmir to Thiruvanathapuram in Kerala, in October 2013. The former international president of MSF has now biked more than 3290 miles or 5300 km, having made many stops along the way to talk to medical students about health and humanitarianism. See photos and his blog UnniCycles:https://www.cycleformsf.in/unnicycles/

Photo by Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

Patients with leg wounds - most by bullets - lay in traction in a hospital in Bangui, Central African Republic. MSF is providing care in the only trauma unit in the city and has treated more than 800 patients with bullet and knife wounds since early December. Read more:http://bit.ly/1inqOoZ

Photo by Jake Simkin

An MSF medical worker in Juba, South Sudan, treats an injured woman, one of the 40,000 people taking refuge from fighting in that area. Overall, MSF emergency teams are working in Juba, Awerial, and Malakal, providing medical care to more than 110,000 displaced people. Read more: http://bit.ly/1f8ZPga

Photo by Jake Simkin

A child receives treatment from an MSF doctor in Juba, South Sudan, where tens of thousands of people have taken refuge from fighting in the area. Even before the recent fighting broke out, 80% of all health care and basic services in South Sudan was provided by NGOs and many people had limited access to care. Now, due to the dangerous security conditions for residents and aid groups alike, access to care is even more limited, with potentially grave consequences. Read more:http://bit.ly/1f8ZPga

From the series MSF in 2013:

“Without donations, we wouldn’t have medications, we wouldn’t have IV solutions, we wouldn’t be able to set up an operating tent within a chicken farm, we couldn’t fly to and from the area of conflict … without donor participation, Doctors Without Borders couldn’t be anywhere.”
—Dr. Steve Rubin, Doctors Without Borders surgeon in Syria

An MSF team set up an inflatable hospital on the site of a hospital that was destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Photo © Yann Libessart

From the series MSF in 2013:

“Traveling from village to village, we hear just one word: measles. People are frightened and hopeless. They’re asking for help.”
— Nathalie Gielen, Doctors Without Borders team manager

From the series MSF in 2013:

“We sent mobile clinics out to reach people who’d fled into the bush, where terrible conditions and lack of food made malnutrition a huge problem. Even though we were a small team we saved a lot of children’s lives that way.”
— Dr. Yolaine Civil, Doctors Without Borders pediatrician in Central African Republic (CAR)
MSF staff weigh a baby to check for malnutrition at a mobile clinic near Bossangoa, CAR. Photo © Ton Koene

Photo by Jacob Simkin/MSF

South Sudan: Since fighting erupted in Bor, Jonglei State, people have been fleeing to the town of Awerial, in neighboring Lakes State, seeking safety. The area does not have the capacity to absorb all of the new arrivals, and living conditions are near catastrophic. More medical and humanitarian assistance is urgently needed. See a slideshow: http://bit.ly/1bWgOuq

From the series MSF in 2013:

“At one point, we operated for 40 hours with only one two-hour break. Then we slept for three hours, and operated for another 12 hours after that.”
—Dr. John de Csepel, Doctors Without Borders trauma surgeon in Syria
An MSF surgeon operates on a patient in an inflatable operating theatre set up inside a converted chicken farm in Syria. Photo © Robin Meldrum/MSF

From the series MSF in 2013:

“While we are treating an increasing number of patients … many more people cannot even make it to the hospitals … That’s why we want to go beyond our hospital walls and reach out to some of these isolated communities.”
—Benoit De Gryse, Doctors Without Borders country representative in Afghanistan
A three-year-old boy and his two-year-old sister injured in a bomb explosion were treated in MSF’s emergency room at Boost Hospital in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province. Photo © Francois Dumont

From the series MSF in 2013:

“We land in the bush with boxes of medicines, plastic sheeting and two stakes to provide a little shade and we go about our work with just the basics … [treating] people with serious infections, malnourished children, pregnant women with infections, and the list goes on.”
—Caroline Scholtes, Doctors Without Borders nurse in South Sudan

MSF nurse Caroline Scholtes examines a baby during an MSF mobile clinic in Dorain, Jonglei State, South Sudan. Photo © Caroline Scholtes/MSF

Posts tagged doctor

Two Little Girls