Thursday saw the end of our village clinic with our 4th day. We were so blessed to have the support of the local red hat volunteers and the Faith in Practice team. Our team showed remarkable resilience and flexibility given over half our team had illness that prevented everyone from being available for clinic every day. In spite of this, for the week our clinic saw a total of 2,138 people! 463 general medicine adults, 183 kids, 129 women in gynecology, 58 orthopedic patients, 122 women also screened and sometimes treated with cryotherapy for cervical cancer, 819 with meds and vitamins through the pharmacy, and 118 through the mobility clinic with 76 wheelchairs given.
Speaking of the mobility clinic, here is a wonderful story that touched our hearts.
Josue was born with spina bifida 7 years ago and is paralyzed from about the waist down. He’s a happy, mischievous, chunky boy, but his mother must carry him everywhere. She brought him to the mobility clinic on our last clinic day, but was told they were all out of the small wheelchairs at this time. So his mom carried him up the steep stairs to the pediatric clinic to get his routine issues taken care of. Mopsy the PA was almost finished with writing a referral to the next mobility clinic that would be in a nearby location in a few weeks, when Claudia from mobility came running up the steps looking for the family. She had found one last small wheelchair that was just the right size for him! The minute we told him that he would be getting a wheelchair his face lit up! (see the first above photo)
Down the stairs mom carried him back to mobility where he was fitted for his beautiful new chair. The grins never stopped. When Mopsy got a chance to get downstairs to see him, he was sitting in his wheelchair waiting patiently with his mom in referrals. I asked him to show me how his chair worked, and he started going back and forth, and pretty soon he was racing all around the main area, navigating in and around the referral and pharmacy lines, around the general clinic, smile never stopping. Amazingly, he managed to not crash into anyone! Lots of folks commented that he would be a natural wheelchair athlete in a few years. Pretty soon, everyone wanted a picture with him. Best smile ever!
Team 864
