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Published: November 7th 2012
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The Sign Says It All
Apparently they closing the school down due to lack of funding. I have had very little experience with hospitals. I was born in one and I have visited family & friends who were sick or just given birth, but I have never really been a patient. I still have my tonsils, adenoids, and all my bones are intact. Some of my siblings have experienced broken noses, fractured collarbones, blown out kneecaps, and torn ligaments, just to name a few incidents. But for me, besides a couple of brief appearances in the Emergency Ward for minor things, I have lived a sheltered life...
For many, hospitals are creepy places. There is an assault on the senses when you enter a hospital. There is the smell of disinfectant, flowers, and antiseptic. There are the shiny mylar balloons, stuffed animals and, sadly, there is the lingering aroma of death. I must admit, I am intrigued by all those things, especially the mylar balloons.
Once you walk by the patients who are smoking on the sidewalk as they hold a cigarette in one hand and their IV poles in the other, and make your way through the automated doors into the lobby, I like the cleanliness of hospitals. There is a sense of order...
no one is raising their voices. People tend to walk at a steady pace. No one seems to be in a huge rush. I think the only people who are running in hospitals are the doctors and nurses in
Chicago Hope, ER, and
Grey's Anatomy. When I was asked to go to
Ndolage Hosital to shoot this video, I knew I would get to spend a few days at a rural Tanzanian hospital. Not many volunteers get this kind of opportunity unless they are in the health sector and that is where they are placed. For me, I got to be a fly on the wall for a few day and see how things work.
There are two different type of hospitals here in Tanzania. There are the private hospitals and those that are run by the government. Ndolage Hospital falls in the former category. As a result, the patients here must pay for the services provided. There are 260 beds at this hospital but it hasn't operated at capacity for years since the people in the surrounding area cannot afford to pay for healthcare.
The hospital staff were informed and ready for us. Each department had
Our House While In Ndolage
They have this house for visiting Doctors, etc. Most of the hospital staff live on the property in housing that is provided for them and their families. They pay some sort of rent. someone who explained everything to the patients and we were welcomed warmly.
We arrived and were given keys to a house on the property that we would call home for the five days we were there. The house was great and it was a stone's throw from a cliff. From our yard we had an incredible view of the valley below.
Once settled, we walked to the hospital for a tour of the facilities... Let's just say, things here are not like they are at home. The building is one level with the main walkway running down the centre. The various wings branch out to the left and right of the centre walkway.
One of our first stops was the pharmacy. At home, hospital pharmacies are chock full of inventory. Here, it is quite the opposite. The majority of the cabinets are bare and what medications they had, were minimal to say the least.
From the Pharmacy, we made our way to the clinic where the locals come in to get blood work done. The clinic is a series of four rooms... there is the reception area where they do testing for malaria, the parasitology room,
The View From The Cliff
We had to drive through the valley below in order to get to the hospital. So green and fertile. the blood donation room, and another room where the equipment is minimal and antiquated.
The majority of the patients here are children who are suffering from malaria. We discovered several rooms full of mothers, sitting by their child's bedside while their little ones slept. They were a little wary of me at first, but once I showed the photos of their babies, they were hoisting those kids out of their beds in order to provide a better picture of me.
The rooms have anywhere from 3 to six beds in them. There are no mattresses, but rather, pieces of old foam that the patients rest upon. Initially, I thought this was awful, but then I thought about what Imelda and Furgence sleep on at their home (freshly cut grass) and I realized that is these beds were probably better than anything most of them have at their homes.
The walls at the hospital are painted in battleship grey and pea soup green. The paint is chipping and there hasn't been a fresh coat applied for years. The lighting in the hallways is minimal, leaving the passageways dark and eerie. Everything is old and they are trying to
make it last as long as possible. I believe this hospital was thriving in the 70's but has fallen on hard times.
When a patient checks into the hospital, they are responsible for anything else they may require while they are there. This includes, towels, soap, personal items, wash basins, etc. When it comes to food, their families are required to bring them their meals. As a result, there is an area at the back of the hospital grounds called the "cookhouse". This is a building that house six to eight stoves. I went into the cookhouse and was overwhelmed by the smoke. In there, locals are cooking meals in aluminum pots over open flames. The smoke doesn't seem to bother them, but they got a big laugh when they saw the tears rolling down my face from the smoke. It reminded me of something out of Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto. I was in there for approximately 5 to 10 minutes and I carried that smoky smell with me for the rest of the day.
In the maternity ward, I was introduced to a young woman who had given birth to triplets earlier that day. The
three little ones weighed in at 5lbs, 5lbs, and 4 lbs, respectively. They were gorgeous and wrapped up beside one another in a bed. The bed had no safety rails and they were tightly wrapped in blankets. The mosquito net was draped over them to keep away the mosquitoes. What was shocking to me was that the mother, who couldn't have been any more than 28 years old, looked amazing. She was thin. You would never have known she had given birth earlier that day. In reality, she probably worked in the fields until the first contraction and then came to the hospital. When we asked if she had any other children at home, we were told she already had 5 children. The new additions took the grand total to eight. How she and her family will take care of eight children is beyond me. God bless her!
I saw no incubators or nursery. The babies are placed in the same bed as their mothers immediately.
Our last stop was the Delivery Room. To be honest, we were hoping to be able to be present for the birth of a baby. Unfortunately, it was a case of being
in the wrong place at the wrong time. While we were hovering around the Delivery Room, taking pictures and videos, a local woman was at the front entrance giving birth. Apparently, she got a ride to the hospital and while she was getting out of the vehicle, the baby started to come. She laid on the ground and delivered right smack-dab in the middle of the front entrance of the hospital. They put screens up around her to provide some kind of privacy. Needless to say, we didn't get the shot.
It was a great few days at Ndolage Hospital. Having the access that I had to get pictures and video was eye-opening to me. Hopefully, my efforts will give you an idea of what the services are like in rural Tanzania.
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Amit
non-member comment
Adorable!