Today when I went on my daily visit to Francis and a few others in ICU I was astounded when Francis physically lifted his hand, took mine in his and shook it. He then intimated that he was requesting continued visits!….a very clear intimation to me that this is a man with incredible spirit, motivation and determionation to get out of this and is slowely showing small steps of improvement.  What about a few emails of support for him?  would that be appropriate for readers of this site to write a few words to motivate him.  I will happily take responsibility for printing off and taking to read to him.  It would also be a tremendous support for his family during the long road ahead. anyone who would like to offer him a bit of motivation my email is dianel(ATSymbol)img.co.ug.  Also Alice is a lovely young lady who has had a long struggle with brain swelling who could also do with a bit of motivation.  Please feel free to email as appropriate
Many thanks

Here is the earlier posting about Francis.



Amina came to us eight months after her accident; she had spent 5 of those months in a plaster without much improvement and little hope. Amina spent only five days on Hope Ward, had surgery and within less than a week after she was discharged she could bear weight and had improved remarkably!

Chest physician Richard Feinmann is volunteering with VSO in Uganda, where life expectancy is just 51 and over a third of the population live in poverty. Here Richard describes some of the challenges facing patients and why exposure to these challenges is so crucial for UK health professionals.

I hadn’t realised VSO would want people of my age. All my VSO contacts went overseas straight out of university, so I was a little tentative when I contacted VSO and said,  “I’m an old git, I have reasonable health and these talents, are you interested?” And I really did expect them to say no but was pleasantly surprised. So here I am and I think it’s the best decision I ever made.

Here at International Hospital Kampala I’m called “Doctor Richard”, which is quite nice in a way – all the doctors are called by their first name. It’s a private hospital but has a charity wing, Hope Ward, which is where I work. It’s for people who can’t afford healthcare. There are a lot of people in Uganda with no money. If you don’t have money, you can’t get transport to the hospital or clinic. And even if you do get there you don’t have money to pay for drugs to get you better. The Ugandan government does provide free drugs for HIV, TB and malaria but they often run out. Sad stories of patients selling their HIV drugs to buy food are all too true.

Making sustainable changes

A lot of patients, particularly those with HIV and TB, come to us quite late and we really think they’re going to die. We feed them up with this disgusting stuff called millet porridge and they get their drugs and within a fortnight they’re up and about. It’s remarkable. There are not always successes, but people often bounce back when you just don’t think they will. So it’s a really rewarding job, but we’re only scratching the surface.

The doctors here are very hard working and very bright, but they don’t get a lot of support and every day they’re seeing things they’ve never seen before. So it’s good to supervise them on the ward rounds, to say, “why did you do that? Had you thought of doing it this way?” I work with the nurses too. Before they just weren’t used to being asked for their opinion, but now they’re so forthcoming. It’s very satisfying for me to see them change and their standards improve. To make all this sustainable I’m about to start working alongside a Ugandan specialist physician who will take over my role. It’s really important to have a figurehead, a key person who will teach and work with nurses when I leave.

I think it’s absolutely key for health workers in the UK to have exposure to Africa. If you haven’t, you just can’t imagine what the difference in healthcare is. It has been a real eye opener. I think every doctor should experience it if they can.

The day was an enormous success with UGX 3,320,000 (GBP 1,072) raised through generous donations from individuals and corporate teams. Bead for Life, Mildmay and Voluntary Service Overseas all entered corporate teams of 10; the Paediatric Infectious Disease Clinic employees came out en-mass to support the event.
The money raised will allow Hope Ward to continue to provide medical services to those most in need.

A big thank-you to the organizers of the event: Robert, Cara, and Jemimah. Thanks also to Irene for the video clip.

This week Dr. Richard provided TB training for local volunteers in preparation for Phase 2 of our TB programme.

Interesting day yesterday. I have mentioned our HIV outreach clinic “Touch Namuwongo”.Since TB and HIV are interlinked the 110 community volunteer workers from Touch came for training about TB. I don’t think I’ve ever done a whole days training on my own with such big numbers.

83 turned up and what a fantastic group. They all stood at the beginning and sang the national anthem …all 3 verses…then prayers…then they got stuck in. Cheering and clapping all day especially when I told them they could save 500 lives if they found the 500 TB cases I think there are in Namuwongo.

Lovely Deborah, my TB nurse had been on duty the night before and I kept saying to her. “Go home Deborah” but she refused and really delighted me by saying “this is too interesting”

Quite a few did not understand all of what I was saying so Francis my other TB nurse translated key bits into Luganda. Quite good actually, as it gave me time to get my breath back. No idea what he said but he said it all with lots of passion

Amazing the work they did in small groups.Not like teaching medical students!. They were fighting to present first,they were funny and they desperately wanted prizes for the best presentations.

This is Florence and Charles. In her presentation she said the main thing the CVW’s should do is love all their clients. This wag in the audience called Charles asked her,”how was she going to love all her clients”! She said “come out here and I’ll show you”. Lots of cheering…great fun. Who said women are not empowered in Uganda.

They do love T shirts and they are important as it identifies them as a volunteer worker. They go house to house, speak in market places, go to churches and schools. Amazingly for no pay just 10,000 Ugandan shillings… £3… when they come to training days

You may recognise the gent modelling the Tshirts.He nearly got crushed in the rush when we were handing them out. Not too impessed with his posture!!

The Blog has now become available as a book which you can buy for a very reasonable £10. This will include a £3 donation to Suubi Trust, to help raise funds for Hope Ward at IHK.

If you would like to know what life is like here for volunteers, learn about our innovation in TB Diagnostics and read some very touching patient case studies then please let us know and we can arrange for a copy to be sent to you.

You can of course read more about this on their Blog, linked above.

If you would like a copy then please use this form to let us know…

We will not give your email address to anybody else.

Posted in Hope Ward, TB Lab, Volunteers Tagged: Dr. Grania, VSO ]]> http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/2009/07/10/the-flip-side-becomes-a-book/feed/ 0 Kevin image image http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/2009/03/24/richard-feinmann-on-volunteering-in-hope-ward/ http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/2009/03/24/richard-feinmann-on-volunteering-in-hope-ward/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:01:58 +0000 Suubi Trust http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/?p=1069 ]]>

Dr Richard and children on Hope Ward, (Lub Dup, the sound of our heart beat)

What to do when you are a sexagenarian physician who has retired from hospital practice with 40 years in the NHS under your belt and golf/Sudoku not really appealing? Well, my health visitor wife and I applied to Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and I am writing this from a hospital in Kampala, Uganda, where I have been working for five months.

VSO did seem to want us and so long as your health is good, age is not a bar; the average age of volunteers is climbing all the time. So, off to Uganda and although it was hard adjusting to a huge change of lifestyle and temperature I recommend it. It’s great to be blissfully unaware of crashing stock markets and to be in a continent where everyone thinks Obama is their president too.

I really believe VSO and Africa do need doctors of my age. 30+ years of general and chest medicine gives experience which is so useful to hospitals in Uganda who aspire to provide quality care. I can treat and manage TB which is useful and I am fast becoming expert in HIV, but Uganda needs experienced generalists. Senior doctors who can make decisions (usually right ones), can’t operate but know when you need a surgeon, can reasonably confidently manage sick kids, teach and mentor and bring management skills both clinical and general, are certainly needed.

My ward is Hope Ward, a charity ward at International Hospital Kampala, so I’m lucky to have good facilities, good nurses and doctors and a clean hospital. The patients are destitute and come from all over Uganda and they are very sick. I don’t think we’ve had a CD4 count over 10, and the TB presentations are extraordinary, not to mention extra pulmonary. This is a country where 58% of the population of 30 million is under 18, yet abortions are illegal, where the government hospitals are understaffed and oversubscribed. Even in government hospitals health care is not free. Life expectancy is under 50 and HIV may affect 10% of the population with half having TB. Uganda is a member of “the bottom billion club” and the sad stories of patients selling their HIV drugs to buy food are all too true.

Many of my patients are babies or young people. It’s very different to the average age of a UK medical ward. They mostly have HIV with complications, but they are remarkably resilient. Rehydrate, feed them with naso gastric porridge (works wonders), restart their TB and HIV treatment and they seem to get better even though they look at deaths door on admission. Initially as an adult physician I was scared stiff of managing the babies and although many still cry when I pick them up (I’m told it’s my white skin!), we seem to manage.

I’m really busy, and my range is from pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in a 9 month old to myasthenia gravis in an 82 year old…both survived!! Of course there are lots of lows, and you have to keep reminding yourself you can’t cure all of Africa. I get really tired because it’s hot and humid with unfriendly mosquitoes, but I think I’m making a difference. A year might be enough but we’d do it again.

It’s good to go with your wife and support each other through the ups and downs. She’s working with the National Community of Women Living with AIDS (NACWOLA), an organisation staffed by dedicated women many with HIV and giving help to women and children with the disease. Her role is to develop child protection policies and a youth strategy.

HIV has wiped out many parents and it’s elderly grandmas who often bring up the children. We are socially very busy both with locals and other volunteers. We have just been to our third wedding out here!

Winston Churchill called Uganda the “Pearl of Africa” and it is a beautiful country with lovely friendly people. Its only blemish is appalling roads and heavy smelly traffic in Kampala.

So, that’s it, I am a physician, paediatrician, house surgeon, TB and HIV specialist and a fundraiser. I teach, do appraisals and appointments, go to hospital meetings and have good friendly colleagues. Patients are universally grateful, even when I get it wrong, and I’m not being complained about or sued.

Come on you bulge-baby doctors…Africa needs you.

Richard Feinmann is a 62 year old general and chest physician who retired a bit early after a serious health scare. He felt he had more to give and jumped at the chance to work with his health visitor wife in Uganda.

My name is Richard Feinmann. My background is 30 years working in the NHS in the UK and I am working in Hope Ward in partnership with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO).

Since coming, I have already seen so many medical problems; sick little babies, surgical patients, cancer patients, HIV and TB complications and many more. The great thing about Hope Ward is that we cope with practically anything.

It is a fantastic facility for those needy Ugandans who are very sick and require medical help but cannot pay. The frustration is that we could do a lot more with more funding. Please continue to support this remarkable work.

Through our volunteer programme we have had and continue to enrol volunteers from Uganda and overseas who have found this a rewarding experience.

In Uganda, we have several young volunteers whose help has been vital in maintaining our records and database; including general administrative duties and tasks. Volunteers from England, USA, Belgium and other countries have also contributed in the areas of nursing and midwifery, trauma and emergency care, among others.

One of our longest serving volunteers is a Nurse Tutor recruited through Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). His experience has been immensely rewarding as he shares nursing knowledge and expertise with students who have a dream to be excellent nurse practitioners. We believe that his efforts to impart knowledge and critical thinking will have profound outcomes in the quality of nursing care that these students will give – we can already see it in their student practice now.

As of March 2008, we have a second volunteer from VSO working with the Finance Team to devise, implement or improve finance systems across the organisation.

The hospital currently has critical needs in:

• Paediatrics
• Midwifery
• Intensive care nursing
• Health Service/ General Management
• Anaesthesiology and Critical Care
• Tutoring at the nursing school

Please contact us if you are interested in sharing knowledge in these areas.

Click here to read more about opportunities through VSO…

He is having a great time and has contibuted so much already.

Read more here…