Mary

We visited "Mary" at the hospital on the morning of 10/6/12, our last day in Nairobi... most of us were flying back to the US that night. We weren't planning on going to Kenyatta that day, but since we all wanted to see how she was doing the day after her double valve replacement, we decided a quick trip to the CCU was in order. She looked great, and was in the midst of consuming some yogurt drink. And we finally got a picture with most of us, including her Kenyatta nurse...

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End of Our Week

Our week in East Africa has come to the end.

At this point, I feel that the major challenges have been properly identified and shared with our hosts. The conflicting interests of some of the local cardiologists, lack of focus on poor and medically-uneducated patients, major cracks in teamwork and the crushing burden of disease are a formidable obstacle to smooth and efficient cardiac care delivery. Without participation of the local medical community any lasting changed would be difficult to implement.

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Last Day

Rupal writes

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Last Day

So as you've probably already heard, "Mary" finally got her 2 valves today, and is currently in the CCU doing well the last time we all saw her!! Hope to get pictures up soon...

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Last Day

David Liu writes

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"Mary" was going to get her operation. We made sure of that. Last night we made arrangements with Patricia, one of the echo techs, who came in earlier than usual, to wheel Mary to the holding area so that there would be no turning back.

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Tammy Higgins writes

I am happy to report, that from the nursing point of view, things are going smoothly and almost better than expected! Several months back, in preparing for this trip, I had contacted the nurse manager of the Cardiac Care Unit regarding our visit. We discussed our goals of nursing education and inquired what cardiology subjects would best benefit the nursing staff. We tailored a lecture series for the week that was posted prior to our arrival, and highly anticipated by the nurses and students! Every lecture thus far has been packed in attendance and we’ve had to add on extra sessions as the week has progressed! The nurses are so receptive to learning and eager to educate themselves to anything heart related. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to teach a group of nurses who soak up every word you say! They take notes at every session, they can’t get enough of the handouts, and they ask such appropriate questions. It makes me proud to be a nurse and extremely happy to be part of this project.
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Mary

David Liu writes
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Aaaaarggh!

Today was an exercise in frustration. Read more... Comments (0)

So What's Going to Happen to Mary?

So Tammy, Eli, David, and I have all mentioned a 24 year old girl we saw in clinic with severe aortic regurgitation (leaky aortic valve) that has been named “Mary”, for she affected all of us. So, as mentioned
above, our team called Mary back from her trip home (~400 km away), and offered her a much needed double valve (aortic and mitral valve) replacement. Read more... Comments (0)

Stay alive for year

Yesterday Tammy wrote about a young woman (I will call her Mary), seen in clinic. She has an advanced case of rheumatic heart disease. Her aortic valve is almost completely destroyed - ravaged by her own confused immune system after a case of untreated Strep throat. Mary needs surgery on two valves, but cannot afford amost $2500 it would cost in Kenya (mind you, the surgery costs about $60,000 in the U.S.). Her doctors told her to go back home, 300 km away. I had to tell her to try to stay alive for the next year and we would try to help her with new heart valves.

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Rupal Parekh writes

We arrived in Nairobi safely on Saturday night, tired from the long
flight(s), but very excited for the week ahead. The next morning
(Sunday), we went to KNH to meet our potential patients and plan the
rest of the week... and were greeted by 50-60 patients in the waiting
room of the cardiology reception, already sitting/standing there for
hours, awaiting our arrival. Patient charts contained sparse
documentation, if any at all. We spent the entire day meeting and
talking to the patients, performing quick echocardiograms (heart
ultrasounds) to get a better understanding (and possible diagnosis) of
the etiology of their symptoms. We made a tentative schedule for the
rest of the week consisting of various percutaneous and surgical
procedures. We also planned 16 stress exercise echocardiograms to
help us decide whether the chest pain experienced by the patient could
be due to blockages in their heart. The concept of this non-invasive
testing is quite new, and not utilized by KNH, but very important in
minimizing unnecessary invasive procedures and cutting costs. And we
didn't get to many of these patients until late afternoon... but no one
ever complained, nor did the children cry. Despite the long distances
they had traveled to see us, many thanked us after waiting for over 8
hours when all we offered was reassurance that their heart was fine...
or even that there was nothing that we could do for their illness(es).

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1st Operative Case

David Liu writes

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Just finished my first case at Kenyatta hospital, the coronary artery bypass operation (used to treat patients with coronary artery blockages), and it was indeed an eye opening experience.

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