The clinic was sponsored by Prerana and coordinated by local community leaders. They provided us with an enclosed space to do examinations, a bed, desk, and chairs. All these items came in handy throughout the 5-hour clinic. Praba and Selvi handled the intake, Rani assisted Purnima, while Jana and I owned the 'pharmacy'. Jana's Kannada is far superior to mine, so besides counting pills, I was only good for giving old women Tylenol and vitamins. I would say "One-do tablet belige. One-do tablet rahtree." (One tablet in the morning, one at night). The sentence was consistently followed by a smile and,unfortunately, a hand-scrunch to the face.
Hundreds of people came to see our ONE doctor, and despite our best efforts to triage, there were some thrown elbows and arguments at the front of the line. Dr. Purnima was great, seeing about 80 patients, without a break. The sheer number of sick infants, children, and women demonstrate the needs of this community.
We quickly realized that we were understaffed and inadequately supplied. Almost every child seen in the clinic had some sort of bacterial infection; from superficial skin infections to lower respiratory tract infections to enteric diseases, these children need antibiotics. For this clinic, all we could do was write them a prescription or refer them to the hospital. We also need to develop a way provide nutritional supplements to the children that are chronically malnourished, as it is hard to fight off infections with an 'undersupplied' immune system.
(A little girl, following her mother's lead, carryies some sticks for a fire)
Overall, the health camp was a great start to a promising, long-lasting service to this community. We learned a lot, which we will carry through to our future clinics. We should improve with each and every clinic.
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