Dr. Thomas
Unbelievable morning. It is mornings like today's when you think this country may have a future after all.
As the European volunteers worked their magic in the dressing room again this morning, Zev, Jake, Abebe, and I decided to walk over to the nearby Yekatit 12 Hospital. The GW students had visited and highly recommended us meeting Dr. Thomas who runs the burn unit at the hospital, supposedly the most advanced burn unit in all of Africa. I haven't seen any other burn units, but regardless, Dr. Thomas is an unbelievable individual. What follows is his short biography, a synopsis of our visit, and the bits of information I remember clearly enough to put down here.
Born in Ethiopia, Dr. Thomas did his medical training in Norway with additional training in India and Scotland. He is a trained plastic/reconstructive surgeon and built the burn unit @ Yekatit from the ground up. He has now trained 8 doctors from Ethiopia to work in/run similar units and has a competent nursing staff. There are 19 beds in the unit, every one occupied. While the equipment still looks like Africa, the standard and method of care is unlike anything else I've seen here (except for Rick). At the beginning, Dr. Thomas used to operate/treat 5 days a week from 8-4 every day, changing dressings, washing burns, and grafting skin all by himself b/c the nurses weren't competent then.
He is preparing a study in the changes of the nature of the burns he's treated in the last 7 years, comparing stats from 2000-2001 to 207-2008. What he found is that the vast majority of patients were females under 30. This is because in it's still very traditional society, women are expected to cook/tend the stove all day long. Unfortunately the stoves most commonly used are accident-prone kerosene Chinese ground stoves (no surprise there). Women would often catch their long skirts on fire while stepping over the stove, refilling it with kerosene mid-cooking, using petroleum or alcohol instead, and carrying it outside the house before extinguishing it. Dr. Thomas quickly realized the problem and set about organizing a public education program to teach children and women about proper stove safety. They've taught thousands of school children about proper usage and he has created a safety brochure that has been widely disseminated...his efforts are obviously making a differences as today very few of his patients come in because of kerosene stove burns.
One of the most interesting things learned is that one of the most prevalent causes of burns was epilepsy. Adults and children alike collapse near fire or the stoves and then proceed to have their seizure in the flames. Thinking that epileptics are simply possessed by evil spirits, most patients refuse to take preventative medicine. There were ~5 patients we saw today that had had this problem. Supposedly the rate of epilepsy here is 5.2/100,000 and it's the most common neurological disorder in the country. As for the children, the majority of them have scald burns because as Dr. Thomas put it, "they are scared of the flame, but they don't realize that boiling water is hot. To them water is water and milk is milk." With more electricity in Addis there is a rising number of patients with electrical burns and on a side note, there were 2 suicide attempt patients (1.6% of the 122 patients in the study in 2000-2001) and the rate of suicide attempt burn patients in Brazil is 46%+...just thought this was a fascinating cultural difference.
It's tough to convey Dr. Thomas' tremendous achievements and crusades here but his dedication and intelligence are readily apparent. With little government support, no medical support staff, and the scant resources of the country, he has built an amazing burn unit where he does skin grafts, makes his own saline solution and disinfectants, and is educating and entire slew of African doctors so they can spread his methods. In an upcoming post I will describe the most prevalent feeling of my trip, that Ethiopia was put in a cave for 30+ years, and now they are trying to match 21st century technology with their 1970 infrastructure; a painful match(?) at times. Dr. Thomas is an exception to this rule and while his materials and government support fit this model, he has bridged the gap and created an amazing medical haven in the midst of this country's ordered chaos, single-handed. His achievements can't be praised enough.
Tonight Zev, Jake, and I are going to Lyston's house (Cherokee fund man) for a lamb barbecue (freshly sacrificed this morning), and then hopefully a visit to a jazz club to cap off the night...we'll see what happens.
(Addition: I also asked Dr. Thomas about whether house fires were a big problem in Addis or not, and he made the good point that b/c most of the people live in single room, single story shacks, they usually have time to get out of the house if it catches on fire...it is a different world here)
As the European volunteers worked their magic in the dressing room again this morning, Zev, Jake, Abebe, and I decided to walk over to the nearby Yekatit 12 Hospital. The GW students had visited and highly recommended us meeting Dr. Thomas who runs the burn unit at the hospital, supposedly the most advanced burn unit in all of Africa. I haven't seen any other burn units, but regardless, Dr. Thomas is an unbelievable individual. What follows is his short biography, a synopsis of our visit, and the bits of information I remember clearly enough to put down here.
Born in Ethiopia, Dr. Thomas did his medical training in Norway with additional training in India and Scotland. He is a trained plastic/reconstructive surgeon and built the burn unit @ Yekatit from the ground up. He has now trained 8 doctors from Ethiopia to work in/run similar units and has a competent nursing staff. There are 19 beds in the unit, every one occupied. While the equipment still looks like Africa, the standard and method of care is unlike anything else I've seen here (except for Rick). At the beginning, Dr. Thomas used to operate/treat 5 days a week from 8-4 every day, changing dressings, washing burns, and grafting skin all by himself b/c the nurses weren't competent then.
He is preparing a study in the changes of the nature of the burns he's treated in the last 7 years, comparing stats from 2000-2001 to 207-2008. What he found is that the vast majority of patients were females under 30. This is because in it's still very traditional society, women are expected to cook/tend the stove all day long. Unfortunately the stoves most commonly used are accident-prone kerosene Chinese ground stoves (no surprise there). Women would often catch their long skirts on fire while stepping over the stove, refilling it with kerosene mid-cooking, using petroleum or alcohol instead, and carrying it outside the house before extinguishing it. Dr. Thomas quickly realized the problem and set about organizing a public education program to teach children and women about proper stove safety. They've taught thousands of school children about proper usage and he has created a safety brochure that has been widely disseminated...his efforts are obviously making a differences as today very few of his patients come in because of kerosene stove burns.
One of the most interesting things learned is that one of the most prevalent causes of burns was epilepsy. Adults and children alike collapse near fire or the stoves and then proceed to have their seizure in the flames. Thinking that epileptics are simply possessed by evil spirits, most patients refuse to take preventative medicine. There were ~5 patients we saw today that had had this problem. Supposedly the rate of epilepsy here is 5.2/100,000 and it's the most common neurological disorder in the country. As for the children, the majority of them have scald burns because as Dr. Thomas put it, "they are scared of the flame, but they don't realize that boiling water is hot. To them water is water and milk is milk." With more electricity in Addis there is a rising number of patients with electrical burns and on a side note, there were 2 suicide attempt patients (1.6% of the 122 patients in the study in 2000-2001) and the rate of suicide attempt burn patients in Brazil is 46%+...just thought this was a fascinating cultural difference.
It's tough to convey Dr. Thomas' tremendous achievements and crusades here but his dedication and intelligence are readily apparent. With little government support, no medical support staff, and the scant resources of the country, he has built an amazing burn unit where he does skin grafts, makes his own saline solution and disinfectants, and is educating and entire slew of African doctors so they can spread his methods. In an upcoming post I will describe the most prevalent feeling of my trip, that Ethiopia was put in a cave for 30+ years, and now they are trying to match 21st century technology with their 1970 infrastructure; a painful match(?) at times. Dr. Thomas is an exception to this rule and while his materials and government support fit this model, he has bridged the gap and created an amazing medical haven in the midst of this country's ordered chaos, single-handed. His achievements can't be praised enough.
Tonight Zev, Jake, and I are going to Lyston's house (Cherokee fund man) for a lamb barbecue (freshly sacrificed this morning), and then hopefully a visit to a jazz club to cap off the night...we'll see what happens.
(Addition: I also asked Dr. Thomas about whether house fires were a big problem in Addis or not, and he made the good point that b/c most of the people live in single room, single story shacks, they usually have time to get out of the house if it catches on fire...it is a different world here)
Comments
Dr. Thomas sounds like a badass.
are the ~5 euro volunteers helping or being destructive? tough to tell if you are being facetious.
what are the international ngos that are helping fix the infrastructure problems?