So we’ve officially been on the road for a short 7 days now, yet it feels both as if a lifetime has gone by and also that it has flashed by in second, too – a mad whirlwind of meetings/site visits, chai (tea), equipment testing, new friends and new experiences. Today we visited the PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) to continue connecting all the dots. As we walked in, Sabaghul (age 3) and her father were talking with a local very talented doctor/cultural specialist Dr. X (not putting names in writing) and Capt. Millis, in charge of medical for the U.S. Army at the PRT. What a story this was, and I know we only got half of it… turns out that as Capt. Millis rotated in, he was asked to find this little 3 year-old girl with a heart defect (transposition of great vessels) that the previous rotation had encountered, but lost track of due to the movement of the family.
Well, they found her and were able to link her with the Gift of Life program out of New York, which is paying for her to have another surgery in the coming weeks in Peshawar. Not the original surgery as planned given that she is exceptionally small for her age (she looks to be the size of a 1-year old), but should grant her more time to get stronger. Post-surgical care will be done by the PRT-U.S. Army medical team. Yet another perfect example of how telemedicine can be used effectively to improve overall care and reduce complications, given that everyone would have the same records and information; however, this case will likely just need to stand as an example of the need and potential value, versus an actual case due to some of the political considerations.
After Sabaghul and her father left, we were able to get some additional ground truth on the healthcare system here, and it still keeps coming back to the same things no matter who we hear it from – the great need for additional training and education to build the local capability and capacity – especially in the rural areas where power is available for 1-2 hours/day. The tendency for “drop and run” as I’m going to call it, and no lasting support, REAL education and plan for sustainability on all the “donations of X,Y,Z”, is just staggering.
After that, it was back to the Fab Lab/Taj for Pete to set up the fixed satellite, which finally made it here from Kabul. Happy to report it is now installed, and getting great bandwidth that we can use to dedicate for medical comms. While he did that, I tagged along with Steve and Fary to the La Jolla School (named because of the Sister-City Sponsorship through Rotary) just on the outskirts of city proper. I’ve heard about the school for over 7 years and was excited to finally see it. Nearly 5,000 students grace the steps in 2 shifts – older boys in the morning; girls and younger boys in the afternoon. It does need some repairs following the October 2008 earthquake in Pakistan, which Steve and Fary carefully documented for action. We got to look in on some of the classes, and after a while again, the kids warmed up to us and expected us to go to each classroom. The vast majority of older girls still hurriedly pull their headscarves around themselves to shield themselves from the men as they enter the room. A smile and wave from Fary and I and they do seem to relax a bit – but only just. When it was just Fary and I in the computer lab with the girls, however, they were remarkably freer (but still reserved). Standing back and observing, I did notice that as Fary walked around to each workstation to see the work they were doing, and offered high praise, the next girls down the line, strove to do the same thing and elicit the same praise.
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