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Ghana trip well worth effort, says doctor
Dec 3, 2007 By: Jeff HaywardUXBRIDGE -- An Uxbridge doctor who was part of a medical team that recently returned from Africa never imagined how important the group’s efforts would be to residents there.
Dr. Jennifer Wilson joined Uxbridge doctors Doug Wu, Michael Damus and Michael Caterer, along with nurse Dale Heywood and health care administrator Robin Belanger, all of Uxbridge Family Health, as well as several area nurses, medical assistants, hospital administrators and religious figures on a trip to Ghana, Africa, to provide medical care. During the two week visit, ending Nov. 17, the team tended to an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 patients, said Dr. Wilson.
The group ran a mobile clinic in five different Ghana communities, said Dr. Wilson. “We saw an average of 300 to 400 people per day,” she said. The team previously noted they see about 40 to 60 patients a day in Uxbridge.
“Never in my life have I seen so much genuine gratitude,” she said of the residents there. “We never imagined how significant (the help) would be to them and that our presence and our efforts would inspire them to push on towards a better future for their children.”
The team didn’t arrive in Ghana empty-handed. Vitamins donated by Uxbridge residents, about 250 pounds worth, along with painkillers donated by various companies were handed out there. “We were overwhelmed by (Uxbridge’s) interest in our trip and are so grateful for the financial donations and vitamins,” she said, adding the team raised about $40,000 through Uxbridge fundraisers. “You should have seen the look on the (Ghana residents’) faces when they got a pack of vitamins from Canada -- it was like gold to them.”
Financial donations were used to buy medicines such as anti-malarials. Malaria was among the most common illnesses treated there, said Dr. Wilson. The cash was also used to transport patients to the clinic. “One woman was my age and had five children just like me arrived semi-conscious to our clinic after coming five hours strapped to the back of a bike from a remote village,” explained Dr. Wilson. “She had a perforated bowel from typhoid fever... with the funds that were raised by the Uxbridge community, we were able to pay for transportation and for her surgery.
“By the end of our trip we heard that she had made a full recovery and was home with her family.”
But seeing so many in need was draining to the team, she explained. “The days were long and gruelling and to be honest, no one had a moment of leisure time. The days were also emotional as we saw so much sickness, so much pain, so much poverty, so many preventable problems,” she said. “The biggest challenge of all was trying to understand how this region, how these people, could exist without the most basic of health services.
“There were no doctors. Equipment was lacking.”
In one example, Dr. Wilson explained they came across a motorcycle accident which left two men in critical condition. “The dark, dirt road became a trauma site,” she said. Without a proper transport gurney, “we did the best we could using the back seat of a taxi as a spinal board to transport them one hour down a bumpy dirt path to the nearest hospital.”
Dr. Wilson said she was kept awake at night there thinking about people dying preventable deaths around her. “I think many of us have returned home feeling like we have the professional, social, and spiritual responsibility to be part of the solution,” she said.
But in the end, the efforts were worth it, she explained. “They (Ghana residents) showered us with gifts of yams, rams, eggs, fruit and vegetables,” she said.
She said the team is now evaluating their trip to determine future involvement, noting Ghana needs to create a sustainable health system of its own. “Whether... we have a role to play in that process is yet to be determined,” she said.
