I’ll start with the bad news so that we can end on a good note. After traveling with ten bags of donations last trip, dad and I decided to try and ship supplies out prior to our arrival so that we could bring larger items and so that we did not have to carry so much. We packed up two large wooden crates and shipped them months ago. They actually arrived in Nairobi in July of this year, and Harrison has been trying to get them out of customs since then. Sadly he was not successful, the shipping company and the customs agents both want more money and more paperwork. I know that Harrison will not give up and we will eventually get our supplies, I just hope they are still usable once we unpack them.
The daily schedule was much smoother this trip already, I think that each group came together as a team and knew what to expect of each other. We actually were able to perform operations faster than the autoclave could clean our instruments! The staff at Kinondo are so excited to learn and see new things, they often beat us to scrub in and assist dad in order to be there when he operates. We were able to perform more surgeries this trip, and had the help of a visiting surgeon to do some of the more simple cases while dad did the more complicated ones.
We performed the first mastectomy ever at Kinondo Kwetu Hospital on this trip. A woman came into the clinic with a mass about the size of a small orange, again another sad example of patients’ lack of access to health care and the impact these treatment delays have on their wellbeing. Dad decided to remove the whole breast because we did not have the proper testing to ensure the mass had not spread more than what was visible. We sent a tissue sample out to another hospital for testing. You could see the relief our surgery provided to this woman, she was so grateful to our team.
This trip we were able to meet and have dinner with Filip, from Kinondo Kwetu Trust. He just happened to be in Diani at the same time as us, so it was great to talk with him and learn more about the trust and all the work that they do. They are currently working with The Karolinska Institute on a research project to detect cervical cancer earlier and thus prevent full development. It is amazing to see all the work that they are able to do in this small and simple hospital, but with a team like they have, it is no surprise.