Meet Wilber
Written by: Suan Swenson, Physicians for Peace
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Gottwald
From the field: Nicaragua
It was a horrific car accident that left Nelson Rivas unable to walk or move his hands. He thought he was confined to a lifetime in a wheelchair. But when Physicians for Peace (PFP) visited Nelson in 2011, that all changed. He was selected for a complex spinal procedure that local Hampton Roads neurosurgeons, Dr. Jonathan Partington and Dr. David Waters, completed without complications. Leaving Nelson with specific physical therapy instructions, the PFP team told him they would be back next year.
During the follow up mission in 2012, Nelson's spirit was contagious....
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With only four operating units, laboring mothers were fighting pediatric patients for appointments. This is not the only overflow. When walking on the delivery hall, a passerby could count up to five patients to a room: breathless in labor with only one nurse serving all five.
Over the years, Hospital de Maternidad, San Lorenzo de los Mina in Santo Domingo, has been constructing a new maternity wing to accommodate for the increase and medical advancements in maternity...
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We recently returned from visiting our partners at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre, Malawi where Physicians for Peace assists the surgical department by providing International Medical Educators (IMEs) for three month rotations to work with and teach surgical trainees. It was a very beneficial visit that evoked a range of thoughts and emotions. There are such apparent and palpable medical needs and so many challenges, both obvious and underlying, facing the population in general, and the medical professionals working to serve them. Yet what remains most...
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In a busy hospital in Hebron, doctors and nurses are pleased to receive a donation from PFP which will help ease the pain of their patients and make their hospital stay less stressful.
The donation includes an item many of us may not think about very much. It's not particularly high-tech. We more often than not take it for granted at our hospitals in the US. It's not something that only incredibly advanced hospitals have and we all actually have some varying kind of it in our homes. Have you guessed what it is yet?
We're talking about mattresses.
These high...
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