Mad as a Hatter, Hot as a Hare
There was only one medicine team on service at Lumbini Medical College. The team had one attending that rotated on a daily basis (sub-optimal, but commonplace in many low staffed…
Those Who Get It
I always feel like a bit of an ass when people toot my horn about my marvelous career. Yes, I am blessed to have worked in a handful of very…
The Vagabond in a Chinese Restaurant
Simulation labs have become quite sexy in medical education over the last decade; every medical school has one or wants one. They are usually the equivalent of a trauma bay…
Gollum’s Riddle
For all of the good things I have said, there are still many areas that need a lot of work in this health system. Some of these are related to…
We are All Rwandan
The next day would be my last with this cohort of students, so I bid them all good luck in their rotation when I boarded the Friday afternoon bus back…
The Bus Can Wait
I’ll admit that I was having a great time working at Butaro district hospital. So many of my projects have taken on a more educational flavor that I don’t get…
The Trenches
The typhoid case was one of several that slipped through the cracks due to system failures in that first week. In that same stretch, we also had an 18 year…
Typhoid Fever
Typhoid fever, caused by the bacteria salmonella typhi, is a form of dysentery (infectious bloody diarrhea) spread through contaminated waste that has been part of our lives since likely pre-history.…
The Butterflies Emerge
As I progress in this journey, I continue to ask myself how best to approach this mission to bring about positive change. One of my primary goals for this phase…
Warm, Humble, Hospitable, and Friendly
Through the next several days, I repeated the ultrasound course for a completely new cohort of residents. This time around I was able to improve on the first iteration, with…