Price, George F.

English

epublications@Marquette

The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 33 | Number 1 Article 19February 1966African Mission AidGeorge F. PriceFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationPrice, George F. (1966) "African Mission Aid," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 33 : No. 1 , Article 19.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol33/iss1/19African Mission Ai GEORGE F. PRICE, M.D. It has been my privilege to ob­serve the practice of medicine in Africa on two occasions. In Octo­ber 1964 my stay was at a little mission hospital of 140 beds oper­ated by the Daughters of Wisdom. For six months previously there were no physicians to help the Sisters. Fortunately, the 600 bed Queen Elizabeth Hospital was only ten miles away and they were busy ferrying the critical cases in the Puegeot station wagon to that hos­pital. Malnutrition, malaria, intes­tinal parasites, and T.B.C. are the four most common diseases preva­lent, and the Sisters were able to handle them, having had repeated experience in the past. Trauma and obstetrical com plications are usual­ly taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. I remember one case particularly well. The patient was playing soc­cer and, instead of kicking the ball, his foot hit the ground, snapping both bones of the right lower leg in half: X-rays indicated that ex­pert orthopedic superv1s10n was needed and he was taken to the neighboring hospital. We relate a sad case : A young girl had an intestinal obstruction due to intestinal parasites; the re­verse peristalsis was visible through Dr. Price, a member of the Brooklyn Catholic Physicians' Guild, has been asso­ciated with many projects of the N.F.C.P.G. His mission service is a notable example. As LQ goes to press, Dr. Price is on another S.S. Hope mission. 54 the abdominc fecal vomitin not allow he .Elizabeth H wanted her happen, in t persuasion wremoved to to die. ill accompanied by .''he parents would be taken to Queen al for surgery and ie, if tha t were to isters hospital. No l help and she was home, presumably One morn a Sister reported to me that a 3e of Tetanus had been admiW In almost forty years of prac. . I had never seen a case of TetG. . much less treated one. Sister J knowled ge of 14 cases; 7 lived . 7 died. I p rompt· ly referred tr modem text book on African di ,cs and the author recommended O 000 units Toxin Anti-Toxin i. n,'.enously on the first day and t .1 reduced to 40,000 units daily. th muscular relax· ants, warm b. 1s and good care, she was able l�ave the hospital of her own ,lition four weeks later. About ., , en months afterf � had left, Sistc:- :rote me to ask i 1remembered t, Tetanus case .(o ·course I did - , il never forget it).The letter con'.·· ued to say that 0�patient came l ,<1ck to the hosp•� with a presenl for the doctor w � saved her life - seven chicken �iSt. Joseph's Hospital was we.equipped with an efficient labo�a tory, an X-ray unit, an operadtl!ltg theatre a very modern up-to· a e ' Sister· obstetrical service and a al Midwife took care of all norm. deliveries. The fast orphanage in ') t ac· Nyasaland (now Malawi 0 LINACRE QUARTERL'I' te 25 childr�n was being:When we were leaving. The give wonderful service, all the charity of their friends. . · lei ,thy con -engaged m quite a ,, , . . · h Peace 1...,orps m -versat1on wit a . h ter At its conclusion, t eterpre · d 'd the father wante int<'rpreter sa1 h h a re-me to know how muc e . pp . December 15, 1964 to Feb-15 1965 I had a similar ex­' only on a much largerciatecl what I had done for his childand also what my country had donef . h' The father was the Sec-I was fortunate to be a mem­the professional staff of therotation on the S.S. Hope, or is. , C b' t f the President s a me · retary o On one of the medical wards, a:1' elderly patient was exfoliating hrsentire epidermis. We ordered adaily intravenous of 5% gluco�e at Conakry, the capit�l �f West Africa. The ship is ting hospital, a veteran of War II and the Korean It has' 240 beds, 3 fully ttfped operating rooms, an_d -1s for medicine, surgery, pedi­• and intensive care. Every­trml from minor surgery to closed lmt operations can be done. All lldalties including the s�b-spe­.... are represented. In my own ¥I-dermatology - I saw every-tliig I see at home, only much lllle In degree and extent. For � I would see an adolescent, 12 or 14 years old, just �overed a fungous infection, which had llftl' been treated. There was only one ophthalmol­esit in the entire country. The � speak French or one of the iree dialects. Most of the doctors It not speak French, or very little, • we had to depend on some . of d wanted to put some hydrocort1-an . the solution, but there sone m 1 't a tablet an ampu e, or awasn ' . . h _d f hydrocortrsone m t e en p_ow her o _t 1 We 1·ust did the besttire ospr a . we could. Two nights before we left, I wasstanding at the head of the ganglank talking to one of the surgeon�1n the third rotation when a taxiulled . up and a man emerged,�arrying a nine-year old boy whohad just been struck by an automo­b'l Half of his scalp was avulsed,1 ii:· down over his face and ear; JotJ bones of his right forearm were were completely fractured _and ther�were numerous lacerations an b . ns The blood pressure wasa rasio . 40/0 Taken to the emergency· oxygen was administered byroom, the chief anesthetist, a temporarynurses, technicians, secretaries, �. or members of the 1Jlllted States Peace Corps, all of ... did splendidly, speaking '-di like the natives and they - a welcome bridge betwe en � doctors and the nativeGiiaean. l' t was put on the right  forearm,; �:t-down was done in the ankle and plasma started. Because area tech-£ the low blood pressure a o . . could not get into an arm n1cian d h ight . so a doctor aspirate t e r d vem . h bloo femoral vein, drawmg enoug h' and crossfor typing, mate mg, One day, toward the end of my the father of a little patient h. At the same time, anmate mg. . died operating room was bemg rea .55 An uncle ./ ,he boy told me, while the Hope 1.--.Jctors were working on the patient, that he had been taken to one of the City hospitals, but he was turned away because the elec­tric generator was not functioning and there was no power that night. As a result of our ten-month stay on the good ship Hope, more than 600 techm doctors anc. sonnel ha, solid, scien Also, a Ho1 on what h(. the entire enriched t: project. XI nurses, dentists, r paramedical per· n trained in good, Wes tern medicine. am was left to carry , ·n begun. I am sure n try will be truly �h this tremendous INTERNATIONAL CON SS 56 of CATHOLIC DOCTOR Manila, Philippines November 2-6, 196 ***** Principal Theme THE DOCTOR and the POPULA TIC � PROBLEM Secondary Themes Fertility and Sterility . * Populati<,, 1 ControlGenetics * Social Medicir c Food and Nutrition Socio-Economic Factors Contact: Mariano M. Alimurung, M.D. Faculty of Medicine and Surgery University of Santo Tomas Manila, Philippines LrN ACRE QUARTERLY in Malaya Octc >er 25, 1965 ks so much for your letter r 11, 1965). I wish that I answer you as soon as possi-even though my English is hat forgotten, since these last h years in France I do not have cliance to practice it. I am ·always very grateful to my dleagues of the Federation of Cath­alic Physicians' Guilds and all those who helped me · when I was doing my medical training in U.S.A. from 1954 to 1956, especially the doctors in St. Elizabeth Hospital,· Brighton (Mm.). \·ery much mixed: Malayans, Chin­ese, Indians, Eurasians, Australians, -;:. uropeans, also Americans and others. The common language is Malay. The patients like the doc­tor to speak his or her language, so I had to go evening school twice a week to learn Malay for my Malayan patients. All day I had to speak English or Chinese or Malay with my different patients. That's really amusing! Near Kuala Lumpur we started with an out-patient clinic, then added a hospital with maternity care. I took charge to see all the sick children. Every day there were about 40 to 60 sick children who came to our out-patient clinic (not counting those for dressings, injec­tions, B.C.G., or triple antigen vac­cinations, and so forth). As men­tioned before, most of the diseases are different from those I saw in the U.S.A.; perhaps it will be interest­ing to tell my colleagues some of them. Since I left the U.S.A. I went to mission lands; my experiences are 11tber poor, but fairly interesting from the medical point of view. Most of the diseases I saw are quite rarely seen in the U.S.A. I spent about 2 years in Macao and about � years in Malaya. I was so en­ioyed to work among the sick ones� Kuala Lumpur and Singapore; It was really a wonderful vineyard where the missionary doctor can do •great good.Maiaya is a lovely country, with wide-spread green fields ( tall tropi­cal trees and all kinds of fruit trees) and so many beautiful small towns and villages. In nearby Kuala. Lum­pur (it is the capital of Malaya) 1'bere I had been, the town is quite newly built (about 9 or 10 years). � beautiful to see all the newhouses with different colored laps shining under the early rising 111n. The peoples in Malaya are PaauAay, 1966 ANEMIA - is a frequent disease. Sometimes the child is as pale as a paper; the R.B.C. and HB drop down to the lowest level. These children suffer from malnutrition or iron deficiency and worms. Some suffer from thalassemia and mega-lobastic anemias. WORMS - is a common disease among the children. Very often a child would be brought for cough, fever, diarrhea, or anorexia and we found the eggs of worms by stool examination. The worst one is ankylostomiasis; (old) children will 57 

African Mission Aid

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4257&amp;context=lnq

African Mission Aid

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

epublications@Marquette