FEB-A-1
LAUNCHING
THE EXPEDITION TO “THE HORN OF
- Index to the Feb-A-Series in launching the Expedition to the Horn of Africa.
- Takeoff
for
- Our
further arrangements for the final preparation for departure, including a “wish
list” from our hosting institutions for drugs and supplies that cannot be
procured within the short order before departure.
- A startling note from Charles Proye follows the writing of his foreword
to “Surgical Endocrinology” .
- My correspondence with Bev Croskery, as she recovers from patellar
tendon repair from icy fall in Cincinnati, as her daughter is recovering
in Indianola as I am headed “Into Africa”.
- Letter
to Robert Croskery in response to his note, recalling
- Of course, there should be a last-minute glitch! British
Airways is canceling a number of flights because of a terrorism alert—our flight,
to be specific!
- In three giant jumps, leave on the wings of british airways from
washington to london, to alexandria egypt and on to addis ababa ethiopia.
- Into africa: Addis ababa, ethiopia: arrival, a very brief night checked
in to the imperial hotel, a rapid city tour and view of the mercado,
snd then, a long check-in process to leave ethiopia with our surgical
kit intact and waiving fees for extensive excess baggage charges, enroute
to hargeisa, somaliland.
- Opening day in hargeisa general hospital: touring the british colonial
pavilion style 350-bed hospital to see the patients and the procedures
by which we are gong to be immersed in the miseries of african problems
of health and its health care delivery, all observed from our comfortable
hotel mansoor nearly first-world base.
- Reviewing patients and consulting and operating in hargeisa general
hospital .
- Friday, the islamic holy day, and our “weekend schedule” of activities
begins with late rounds at hargeisa general hospital, and a tantalizing
tour of edna adan maternity hospital—an already organized boutique facility,
already staffed and operational for paying patients.
- A primer on working with people in Africa : relationships more important
than action; introductions over substance; patience over praxis; commiseration
over solution; understanding over knowledge: “african feminization of
american men of action”.
- The note written from Saad Noor in Washington , following our mission
with interest, and my response in a covering leter from hargeisa, somaliland.
- We find ourselves alone on the busy afternoon of the first weekday of
a new week, without another doctor or even nurse in Hargeisa group hospital;
the casualty admissions of the day begin with a lethal accident victim
and end with a badly shattered open tib/fib fracture of the right leg
in an eight-year-old girl, before we adjourn to the hotel mansoor for
my first successful emailing on the second pass.
- The first elective “theatre day” in Hargeisa group hospital: too much
of a good thing may be almost enough! Making connections: and lobster
dinner in the desert with Edna Adan and her maternity hospital staff.
- An over-filled day of morning and afternoon outpatient clinics at Hargeisa
group hospital, moving over in “who” official un vehicles for a visiting
professorship at Hargeisa university faculty of medicine, lecturing the
new medical students of a still-being born medical school, less than
technology intensive, and a return to meet with USAID groups, and the
director general of the ministry of health and labor.
- Our “Theatre day” in Hargeisa group hospital overflows with patients
spilling over our capacity in outpatient and or with very interesting “once
in a lifetime” classic cases, drawn directly from yesterday's “Tropical
Surgery” lecture. The day concludes in a televised reception and dinner
with our hosts on the hospital and health committee of Hargeisa community
leaders.
- The Pace Quickens, and a Rush of Clinically Interesting Patients Overflows
our Limited Schedule in “OPD” and “OR.
- Our heaviest workday of the entire expedition, with an all-night writing
of the experiences thus far and an emailing of a report at dawn, followed
by an overfull clinic at HGH where guards were whipping back the overeager
crowds of potential patients from the door, and a spectacular series
of operating room cases including a 5.5 minute thyroidectomy for goiter
under cervical block, the largest ovarian tumor excision in hgh history,
two Hydroceles, two hernias, and on to the Edna Adan maternity hospital
where we see clinic patients from 4:00 to 11:00 pm, and return exhausted
and giddy to repeat the process all over again in the final sessions
in each of the same venues in the morning.
- The predicted pattern has developed in fact: like life, the Somaliland
medical mission has developed tentatively and hesitantly at the innocent
beginning, with more familiarity and adaptation to the learned environment
as we become more operational with the help of many friends, and with
increasing expectations on one side and experience on the other, a “ground
rush” toward the finish with expedited plans and continuing relations
have been carried through to leave as few as possible disappointed, but
always with much more to do than accomplished at the end .
- Response from EDNA ADEN ISMAIL and her staff.
- The Team Regroups over Photos and Biopsy specimens for Pathology reading .