Yates Family In Soddo

4 years ago we suffered a very difficult and very real infectious outbreak in our NICU that resulted in many neonatal deaths. It was a very difficult time. One of the moments that sticks in my mind was when we had preterm triplets born in our hospital (it was our last viable set of triplets). It was a small space and we didn't have any room for these babies, but we did the best we could at the time and put these babies in our acute care NICU, all three in 1 bed in the middle of our small room surrounded by 3 other babies on the outside. Unfortunately, due to hospital acquired infection, which is difficult to control in a very tight space, two of the three triplets died. I can still remember when the family brought back the one on this babies birthday thanking me for saving their child. Fast forward to this week, our OB department has many babies ready for delivery, 18 to be exact with SIX sets of twins, and TWO sets of triplets. Twins and Triplets are often born prematu...

 A sweet friend and co-worker of mine, Dr Dereje, was pregnant with his first child. He and his wife had prayed and prayed for this child and offered him and his life to the Lord. In honor of this, they decided to call him Samuel, God has heard, even before the delivery.  As his wife approached her due date, she was induced for low amniotic fluid. I remember the day so well. It was one of those days, I don't think I will ever forget. His wife was rushed to the OR for a cesarean section because the baby's heart rate dropped. I ran to the OR to meet the OB team there.  At delivery, we saw that Samuel had stooled in the amniotic fluid and at the time of delivery, aspirated some of it into his lungs. This is called meconium aspiration. This started a very difficult and complicated recovery. We placed a tube down his throat and he was placed on a breathing machine. Multiple times he nearly died with a very very low heart rate and a nearly obstructed breathing tube. He required...

Now over a year ago, Soddo Christian Hospital started a sustainable prevention program for rheumatic heart disease. It involves school based ultrasound screening for early detection of rheumatic heart disease. A group of 6, that grew to 8 nurses were trained on how to do the screening ultrasound. They are now proficient to go on their own to do the screening. After the children are screened, one of our Ethiopian specialists confirms the changes in the heart valves and the child gets started on monthly penicillin injections. The injections prevent further strep throat, which then prevents the scaring on the heart valves.  This chronic cardiac problem not only causes a short life for the child, but often the families pay a lot of money for medications, travel far to doctor’s appointments, other children may not get what they need and it can cause a medical I can’t count the number of tears that I have cried over sick children destined to die of rheumatic heart disease before their ...

As most of you know, I (Michelle) am the head of our pediatric unit and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Neonatal care is separated into the normal babies who may need a few days of breathing support or antibiotics but are otherwise stable, and the high acuity babies who are often suffering from many complications of prematurity and need a high level of cares for weeks or months. We have put a lot of resources into making the best space we could to care for these fragile babies in a safe manner. We have had many many sweet "wins" sending home healthy babies, but we also see death regularly. This has been a especially difficult year in our NICU. Starting in November we started to have a significant increase in our neonatal admission rates and also our neonatal deaths, especially the babies in our acute care room. After much investigation and consultation, we concluded that we have been having an outbreak of hospital acquired infections. By God’s perfect timing, one of ou...

On the heels of a very difficult week in the hospital, I was making my usual rounds. Baby Beniam was a one-month-old boy who had infantile pyloric stenosis and had received a lifesaving operation at our hospital by our general surgery team. He was a few days post-op and still not tolerating all of his feeds. Hid dad approached me and said they could not afford any more medical care because they had already spent all they had on this boy’s life. As the head of the pediatric department, this is the hardest thing I face, and it happens regularly. The baby still needed hospitalization to complete his antibiotics, receive a blood transfusion, and be fed enough in order to gain weight. If I let him go home, he would get sick, dehydrated and die, which would be a waste of the money the family had already spent and the care we had already worked so hard to give.  I consulted the hospital’s Benevolence Fund Committee, and we decided the fund could cover the rest of the patient’s hospital ...

Sometimes we have those days or experiences that drastically change the way we think of life. Sometimes I’m aware enough to realize it, and other days I’m too dense to see what is right in front of me. An encounter with a special family has rocked my faith and my medical world view. This story has two unique parts, the medical amazement and the personal story. As a human being we cannot disconnect the two, but let me tell it as it was revealed to me. A 12 year old boy from a rural area of Ethiopia (12-15 hours transport to get to Soddo) arrives nearly comatose, unable to sit, unable to move his entire right side, unable to eat, barely able to speak. Upon examination he had a fever and a rigid neck. He had signs of increased pressure in his brain, so I couldn’t do a lumbar puncture to confirm my suspicion of meningitis and our CT scanner, the only within 3 hour drive, was not working. He had already been on IV antibiotics for 2 weeks and didn’t get any better. His father, in de...

Medicine in Ethiopia is often difficult. None more difficult than watching many children and young adults suffer and die because of preventable causes. As a physician, it is easy to spend my time working hard to save the lives of the critically ill and hospitalized. As a family physician, there is the constant question, “what can I do to impact and prevent illness?” Ethiopia already has a structure in place for vaccinations and other public health projects, so figuring out my part in the greater pictures has been slow going. When we moved to Ethiopia three years ago, we had this vision of starting a community health program with Kavi and Taylor, but the demands of the hospital have not given us the full opportunity to figure out how and where to do such a project. Our RHD screening team in action Two years ago at the CMDE conference, a cardiologist, Ron Johannsen, cast a vision during his talks on Rheumatic heart disease (heart disease caused by recurrent strep throat infect...