"Christmas" in February

“In America, if 2 out of 10 patients die then you are devastated that you lost 2. If Kenya, if 2 out of 10 patients live then you rejoice in the 2 lives saved.” This is a quote I’ve been reflecting on this week which was said by an American missionary doctor here at Kijabe hospital.  It’s been a huge adjustment to change to this new perspective. When a patient dies next to me and no one seems to be grieving it is hard to understand or when a patient is coding and no one is rushing to their bed it is hard not to get angry but the reality is the quote above…the Kenyans just choose to rejoice in the lives saved.

Overall, I am so impressed with Kijabe hospital- the way that they use their very limited resources in order to provide the best care for their patients is amazing. One of the best parts of the hospital is the Bethany center which focuses on children with neurological disorders like spina bifida. Kids come from all over East Africa on grants to see one of the best pediatric neurosurgeons in the world. Another awesome part of Kijabe is that it is a training hospital so they get to train the 40 orthopedic surgeons in the whole country of 34 million in Kenya. Also, they got to train some of the first and only orthopedic surgeons for some of the African countries that have less access to good healthcare. What excites me about the opportunity to be at this hospital is the concept of sustainability. My dad is training and educating ortho residents who will be helping this country for years to come and I am trying to do the same with physiotherapy. It’s a bigger and more lasting impact than just a couple weeks of treating patients. When Kijabe hospital first opened there were no Kenyan nurses or doctors but instead it was an all American/British staff because the Kenyans had no training programs. Now the majority of the staff is Kenyan because there is a Kenyan nursing school at Kijabe and there also are lots of resident training programs here.

Being in Kenya constantly makes me realize how many things we take for granted in the US. You can start with the basics like being able to drink the water and having electricity and internet, etc. But when my mom asked the question of “What do you appreciate from home now because of this trip?” my immediate answer was our healthcare. It’s crazy what you take for granted in the US regarding quality healthcare and an ample amount of medical supplies. All third world country hospitals have very limited budgets (Kijabe being one of them), therefore, supplies and space are very limited. On more than one case I’ve seen a physio use a towel for a shoulder sling and also a sheet be used for a gait belt. Space is limited as well. Picture this: I said in an earlier post that the physio room is 12x18 room but on orthopedic patient days it’s so busy that we have 7 physios in that small room seeing patients. They actually count squares on the floor and give each physio a space that is 30 ft big (5x6). It’s crazy that patients travel at least a half day to get physio treatment in that small of space with such limited supplies but there really aren’t any other options!

My dad has told some interesting stories about the OR (called a theatre here). For example, there are huge lights that have 10 light bulbs each but they typically are down to 2 of the 10 light bulbs working so it can be very difficult to see when operating. Also, he walked into a surgery after the Kenyan orthopedic residents that he was supervising one of our first days here and the theatre nurses said they were all out of gowns so he couldn’t be in there! And he says that he wears his face mask more than one day in a row because they don’t have enough to wear new ones. To any healthcare professional that has practiced elsewhere let me just tell you that the stuff you see and do here is just crazy. But they definitely do the best with what they have.

The good news is that we celebrated “Christmas” with the ortho and physio staff this week! They call it “Christmas” when they open supplies that short term missionaries bring that they are in dire need of.  It was so fun to see the physios and doctors open up the bags we brought (over 150 lbs of equipment) and their eyes just lit up like little kids do on Christmas. They immediately started talking about all the things they could do with it and how they’d been waiting and/or asking so long for that piece of equipment!

---Another Kenya beginner lesson learned: When running at dawn and you see a guy standing in the field next to you with a machete you don’t have to sprint due to the assumption that he is going to cut you…instead he’s just cutting the grass. Often they will cut whole fields of grass with a machete knife ; )