Health Care

These last two weeks in the Gambia, I am volunteering at a local hospital in the pediatric ward. So far, I absolutely love it. I am working in the pediatric ward with children from 2 days old to 16 years. We see all kinds of ailments from hypoxia, asthma, malria, pneumonia, head trauma and many more. Malaria season is begining so we are starting to see more Health care in the Gambia is "free" in theory, it's only about 4 cents to admit a child and food, drugs and most other care are free. However, there is a shortage of food and drugs so the families end up having to spend a lot of money at privately owned pharmacies for their loved ones. Many families can't afford the medications so the kids just stay in the hospital with no treatment at all. There is also no food provided, the kitchen is out of order so families are expected to buy their own food too. Once again, which some families cannot afford.

The hospital I'm working in, Serakunda Hospital, was built by Thiland and opened about a year ago. It is beautifully built with several 2 or 3 story buildings with one ward per floor. The wards are long rooms with bed after bed. There is no privacy at all, but the families often get to be good friends. Lots of people sit and lay in the courtyard wiating for their turn to see a doctor. There are plenty of nurse's assistants and tech's but not really enough nurses and doctors. The assistants are very important because they translate for the patients. (There are 7 tribal languages and most people don't speak English unless they went to school. Education is "free"~still lots of fees that keep people out~but the average years in school is 2nd grade education, so most people don't speak English.) Many of the doctors and nurses here are Cuban and some from other countries, so they do not know the tribal languages very well.

In addition, there are very few resources to actually treat patients. We have only 1 tank of oxygen for the entire hospital, but it has been out of oxygen since I got there. There is also only 1 nebulizer for the whole hospital, but it doesn't work if there is no power, which happens about 8 hours a day. It seems like a generator could save a lot of lives but those are expensive and there is a fuel shortage here, so who knows?

One thing that is interesting is that many people go to Imams before going to the hospital. An Imam is an Islamic religious leader that looks at the ailment, writes parts of the Quaran on a sheet of paper and puts it on a little pouch that goes on a person's neck or around their arm. It costs SO much money to go to an Imam and people can spend all their money on this before they go see a doctor. Many people believe that someONE made them sick instead of someTHING. That is, perhaps their uncle is mad at them so they cursed them. We saw this quite a bit in Haiti as well, so it doesn't suprise me. But it can be frustrating because so many patients come in past the window of opportunity to treat them. They are often on their death bed when they show up and all you can do is send them home.

Despite these many obstacles, it is really neat how much the hospital does with so little. Many patients come in very sick and incredibly attentive staff miraculously, they leave healthy! At home we depend so much on technology, but people can actually get better without it! I love seeing how happy people are when they or their loved one finally gets better and can go home. I think I'm really going to enjoy my time there.