Medical Clinic: "Dr Love"’s Perspective

Great team work made this clinic go much more smoothly. Slight problemo on arrival as the registration forms were still at the Tunasan Centre so we had to make do with paper.

With the help of Myrna, who was my translator, in six hours we saw 50 patients who between them had 71 different diagnoses! Most common problems included chest infections, worms, scabies, ear infections, colds, gastroenteritis and conjunctivitis. Many of these children were also malnourished. We made sure every child was given multivitamins to help with this. The staff of Tunasan will be monitoring the weight of these children in the coming weeks. One child was jaundiced, most probably due to viral hepatitis A. I referred her to hospital for further tests.

Although busy and exhausting, I was well sustained by energy drinks and this clinic was definitely worthwhile. I will never see sights like this in my Bletchley surgery!

Before the clinic we had visited the Cataquiz Community where all these children were living. The conditions were very basic with no fresh water on site. Nearby was a pig farm which was a better quality construction than most of the houses! It is no wonder the children had so many diseases compared to the children in the first medical mission.

You’ll be pleased to know that medical problems amongst the team are limited to a few insect bites and headaches. I will however be keeping a close ‘scabies watch’ on them all!

Lots of love

Doctor Chris/Doctor Love