Posted on Jun 15, 2022
Opinion: From Kigoma to Kyiv, refugees everywhere deserve quality health care
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https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/06/15/ [login to see] /opinion-from-kigoma-to-kyiv-refugees-everywhere-deserve-quality-health-care
At the Nyarugusu refugee camp in western Tanzania, a 39-year-old Congolese refugee and mother of nine came into our lives at what was almost the end of hers. She was bleeding to death from complications of childbirth.
We met this patient in April as part of a collaboration with the Tanzania Red Cross Society. As trainees in medicine and public health at Johns Hopkins University, we were visiting the camp to understand and improve the quality of its health care and surgical services.
The woman's baby had been safely delivered hours earlier, but she was very sick when she arrived at the camp's main hospital. She needed immediate surgical care, medication to maintain her blood pressure and urgent blood transfusions.
Exceeding our most optimistic expectations, the 39-year-old mother survived emergency surgery and recovered, despite very limited postoperative care.
Many other women are not as fortunate. Just days later, our Tanzanian colleagues reported that another woman had arrived with the very same condition. But she died.
At the Nyarugusu refugee camp in western Tanzania, a 39-year-old Congolese refugee and mother of nine came into our lives at what was almost the end of hers. She was bleeding to death from complications of childbirth.
We met this patient in April as part of a collaboration with the Tanzania Red Cross Society. As trainees in medicine and public health at Johns Hopkins University, we were visiting the camp to understand and improve the quality of its health care and surgical services.
The woman's baby had been safely delivered hours earlier, but she was very sick when she arrived at the camp's main hospital. She needed immediate surgical care, medication to maintain her blood pressure and urgent blood transfusions.
Exceeding our most optimistic expectations, the 39-year-old mother survived emergency surgery and recovered, despite very limited postoperative care.
Many other women are not as fortunate. Just days later, our Tanzanian colleagues reported that another woman had arrived with the very same condition. But she died.
Opinion: From Kigoma to Kyiv, refugees everywhere deserve quality health care
Posted from npr.org
Medical
Health
Refugees
Immigration
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."On our second to last day in the camp, we went to the ward to check on our 39-year-old patient. When we saw that her cot was empty, our thoughts quickly darkened. Had she died unexpectedly overnight or experienced an acute event?
We went to the nurse's desk and asked if she knew where the patient was. Looking up from the ward's logbook, she smiled.
The woman "left last night," she told us, "and is now home with her family."
Alexander Blum, MPH, is an MD candidate at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Zachary Enumah, MD Ph.D. MA, is a general surgery resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of any entities in which they are affiliated."
..."On our second to last day in the camp, we went to the ward to check on our 39-year-old patient. When we saw that her cot was empty, our thoughts quickly darkened. Had she died unexpectedly overnight or experienced an acute event?
We went to the nurse's desk and asked if she knew where the patient was. Looking up from the ward's logbook, she smiled.
The woman "left last night," she told us, "and is now home with her family."
Alexander Blum, MPH, is an MD candidate at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Zachary Enumah, MD Ph.D. MA, is a general surgery resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of any entities in which they are affiliated."
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