Talek 911

The team writes about seeing patients -

Both Kendra and Eleanor spent all week seeing patients in the clinic, which was a little unexpected. They had anticipated a day or two of observing how the clinic functioned, but Juma, a nurse and clinic manager, put them to work seeing patients. Luckily the team had brought some lab coats to be donated, so Kendra and Eleanor could be properly attired for the work.

Kendra, Eleanor, and Juma discuss a diagnosis

Juma served as interpreter for the first several patients before Kendra and Eleanor started working on their own and they saw patients ranging in age from newborns to the elderly with ailments that included malaria, brucellosis, typhoid, TB, fungal infections, and burns.

The clinic has a well-ordered intake process to see a medical professional (known as a "clinician") that starts when the patient arrives and registers with the social worker at reception. If the patient has been to the clinic before, the social worker gets their history file (written on a 5-by-8 index card), then the patient waits his or her turn to see the clincian who will interview the patient for symptoms and arrange for treatment. An on-site lab can complete tests to confirm diagnoses, including serious illnesses such as TB, typhoid, malaria, and venereal diseases, and the pharmacy in the next room can dispense most needed medications.

Alex, Kendra, and Eleanor

Just as doctors in the US are extra busy on Mondays, that was a busy day at the Talek clinic, full of patients who became ill over the weekend. Soon Kendra and Eleanor found that the most common issues, malaria and fungal and respiratory infections, were easily diagnosed and treated, even with the difficulty of working through a language barrier. The adjustment to practicing international medicine was fairly quick, even though it included illnesses rarely seen in the US.

After a lighter patient load on Tuesday, Kendra and Eleanor arrived to a full waiting area on Wednesday which is the immunization and obstetrics day of the week. The clinic and the community health workers have had great success with communicating the benefits of immunizations to the Maasai, and now most children in the area receive their routine immunizations on schedule.

Eleanor and friend

Thursday included two unusual cases: one was a boy who had been kicked in the chest by one of his family's cows and another was a follow-up visit by a man who had been attacked by a lion while herding cows and was saved by friends who came to his rescue.

When the team returned to the clinic after lunch on Friday, we noticed a long, pine box being constructed just outside the clinic grounds, and we soon learned what it was for. A woman from another village had died in Talek, and they needed to preserve her body for transport back home. Eleanor was asked to help with the embalming, but she declined, so the other clinic workers set about filling syringes with formaldahyde for the procedure. You just never know what international medicine will bring.

In addition to the medical supplies brought from the US and donated to Community Health Partner clinics, on our last day at the Talek clinic the team donated our unused Cipro, an antibiotic, which was timely because one case involved a boy with an abcess on the top of his head which was lanced and he was able to be given some of the donated medication.

Kendra sorting medical instruments

The usual maladies of malaria and typhoid rounded out the morning's cases. Kendra noticed that the surgical instruments could use some organization so she set about sorting and ordering them to make it easier to find the correct implement.

Working with patients in Kenya has been a great experience. It was a chance to see how the people in the Mara are treated, or not treated, particularly in comparison to what we experience in the US. The diseases treated here, which would be minor at home, would be painful or even fatal here without the intervention of the clinic medical professionals who do a great job, even under challenging circumstances.