Three days in Chatinkha

Muli bwanji!

It’s officially Thursday here, which means that Caleb, Jacinta and I have been in Malawi for one week. In some ways the time has gone by so fast that I can’t believe it, and in other ways it seems like we have been here forever. Caleb and I have spent the last 3 days shadowing two doctors, Dominique and Jalloh, throughout the peadiatric unit at Queens, while Jacinta has been busy coordinating with professors at Poly to coordinate out what the next few months will have in store for us. After several days of going about our official internship responsibilities, it’s nice to finally settle into a routine, recognize familiar faces, and know our way around the hospital.

 

Caleb and I before work at QECH

 

A typical morning on the peadiatric unit at Queens starts at 8:00am with morning handover. At these meetings, doctors discuss any unusual developments in patients that have occurred since the last morning handover as well as any deaths that have been reported in the wards. Though it is sometimes disheartening to hear presentation after presentation about cases that have gone wrong, I also find it encouraging that these cases are very few when compared with the number of success stories we see each day. Additionally, and somewhat surprisingly, I also found that I understand a large amount of what the doctors talk about in their morning reports!

After morning meeting I follow Jalloh to the Queen’s version of the neonatal intensive care unit, the Chatinkha nursery. For the past three days I have observed as he completed morning rounds, frequently checking up on over twenty patients in one morning. The wards are crowded, often with multiple babies in one incubator, which is incredibly different from NICU units in the United States. However, despite the limited space and resources, it is encouraging to me to see the passion that the doctors have for their work. One morning as we were rounding, Jalloh told me, “We may not have a lot of resources, but if we do the simple things correctly, we can make a difference.” I was blown away by the truth of this statement – frequently it is easy to get caught up in the development and use of new and groundbreaking treatments. However, a large number of patients can be successfully treated with basic interventions, as long as these interventions are correctly administered and the patients are consistently monitored.

 

bCPAP in Use!

 

It seems to me that the one of the main limits to care in Queens, specifically in the nursery, is not the quality of equipment, but it is the quantity. Much of the equipment used in Chatinkha is donated from outside agencies, and when this equipment breaks, the infrastructure and resources needed for repair are not readily available. This leaves essentially a graveyard of equipment that cannot be used. Today, I found three phototherapy lights and one suction pump in Chatinkha that were no longer in use for this very reason. Hopefully, Caleb, Jacinta and I will be able to work with PAM to repair these devices, and many others, in the coming weeks.

 

 

Phototherapy Lights That Need Repair

 

When not working, our team has been practicing Chichewa, learning to cook, and sitting on the front porch of the guesthouse drinking tea and making friends. Additional leisure activities include weekly bachelorette watching parties and trips to the market (where we try, and frequently fail, to bargain). Finally, Emily and Aakash arrived in Blantyre today, and Caleb, Jacinta and I are having fun giving them the grand tour of the city. Tomorrow we will introduce them to our friends at Queens and settle even more into our official internship roles. Caleb and I will also have the opportunity to meet our mentors at the Poly and hear more about the work they have already been doing with Jacinta. I can’t wait to see what our next week holds!

 

 

Drinking Tea on the Front Porch

 

Other work we’ve been doing: Inventory!