MEDICAL MISSION TO NIGERIA OPENS EYES, HEARTS
by Dan Wagner
In-November, eight
health care professionals representing the World Health Mission traveled for
a second time to Nigeria in western Africa on a volunteer medical mission to
the cities of Bauchi and Jos. As a supplement to their medical expertise, the
team sent 12 crates of medical supplies, drugs, vitamins and equipment worth
more than $50,000.Dr. Robert Ford of UPMC Passavant and his wife, Karen, led the group. Other physicians on their second trip were Dr. John Moraca, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Sewickley, and Dr. Michael Reich, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Columbus, Ohio. Also returning was Donna Whitlock, a critical care and transplant nurse from the University of Alabama Medical Center. Newcomers included Dr. John Burns, a urologist from the University of Alabama Medical Center in Birmingham, and Fern Wasco, a registered nurse with Sewickley Valley Hospital.
Daniel T. Wagner of Pine returned as the pharmacy specialist. He is owner of Nutri-Farmacy, Med-Pharm and the Wildwood Medical Supply Co. in Hampton.
Wagner has done extensive voluntary medical service in Kenya, Cuba and Belize in the past year. He shared his experience of the Nigeria trip with Voices North readers.
The first part of a very successful trip back to Nigeria for the team of the World Health Mission was anything but encouraging. Our connecting flight from Pittsburgh to Detroit to Amsterdam was interrupted by a heavy, dense fog over the Netherlands that forced our plane to land in Germany. Naturally, this uncanny natural event caused our team to miss its connecting flight to Kano, Nigeria, not our original destination. It was hard to determine if our misfortunes were the result of serendipitous weather or just plain bad luck, especially when the luggage didn't arrive until a week later.
By the following day, everyone learned they could function without their full complement of clothing, no supplies, and the few drugs that were carried from Pittsburgh but now marooned in Amsterdam. Nonetheless, the health team got to work by using their skills instead of medicines on the needy masses of the most-populous country in Africa. Moraca, Reich and Whitlock immediately returned to Bauchi Specialist Hospital in eastern Nigeria, the same venue as their visit the year before. They continued to perform routine and emergency surgeries, assisted in educating the hospital staff and provided other services that the poor but warm and appreciative Nigerian patients see as acts of "angels of mercy."
The other half of the team was stationed in the central-Nigerian plateau city of Jos. The city is a robust and endearing town that elicits a different perspective on Nigerian life. Located on a geologically ancient plateau, Jos enjoys a much cooler and more temperate climate compared with the usual, hot, dry, semiarid weather that encompasses this large country that sits South of the great Sahara Desert. The Fords, Burns, Wasco and I were stationed at the Jos University Teaching Hospital. The hospital departments of urology, nursing and pharmacy were eager to meet their professional counterparts from the United States, and they greeted us with smiles and handshakes that were of cordial demeanor and genuine appreciation.
The 17 days went by quickly. Our days were filled with hard work from morning to late evening making rounds with the doctors, distributing crutches and medical and surgical supplies to the wards, meeting with the VIPs of the city (including the governor of the state) and tending to many patients. The distribution of our cache of medical supplies, drugs, vitamins (and goodies and toys for the kids) was shared among three hospitals: JUTH, Bauchi and Glombi Hospital, located three hours east of Bauchi. Ford was responsible for the success of these lifesaving supplies getting to the needy people, for often in Nigeria the problems of bureaucracy, bribes to officials and diversion and stealing of goods is all too common.
The overall principles that the World Health Mission aspires to were fulfilled in many capacities on this humanitarian venture. All supplies, vitamins and drugs that were donated by our group were earmarked for only those patients who could not afford to pay for them. This stipulation, although sometimes very difficult to implement, is critical. All hospital patients are required to pay for their medicines and supplies from out-of-pocket expenses (the government does not pay for drugs, supplies, food, bedding, bandages or biologicals while the patient is confines to the facility) that in most cases is more than the family can afford.
These donations are so appreciated. I most often enjoy spending time in the pediatric ward dispensing oral vitamin drops to the hundreds of babies whose families can rarely afford to buy them. The smiles from the consenting mothers are priceless, and the children enjoy the sweet taste of the vitamin liquid. Sometimes I feel as though these mothers believe you are bringing some miracle cure to their baby by simply giving one dose of medicine with a smile and an honest heart. It sums up what our medical mission is all about.
Education is one of the main objectives of the Health Mission, for it is nonproductive and sometimes futile for the group to perform their expertise in areas of medicine without teaching their skills to others. This can be done on a one-to-one relationship with a resident or student by doing rounds with the interns, or by teaching classes. Lectures by Dr. Burns, Donna Whitlock, and I on subjects such as urology, diabetes and complementary medicine, were given to the hospital staff, medical and university students and faculty. The problem with the continued monitoring of diabetics was found to be most acute. The hospitals have no money for glucose-monitoring machines; they still use a very outdated method of checking sugar in the urine (using a tablet dissolved in urine). We hope that a smaller team from The World Health Mission will travel back to Nigeria in the next few months to help teach doctors, pharmacists and nurses the technique of measuring glucose levels by taking "fingerstick" blood samples, a vastly superior way for tracking blood glucose levels. We are working with a major pharmaceutical manufacturer who, we hope, will donate sample machines, strips and educational material that would facilitate this worthwhile endeavor.
The friendships and relationships we make
with the many peaceful and gentle Nigerians always is the most memorable part
of the trip. Most of them can only dream of coming to the United States, perhaps
getting an education or possibly just touring the fantasy land they believe
our country to be. Perhaps some day when the vile blindness of politics and
greed can be overcome for the benefit of the common man, people from our country
and theirs can travel and communicate in peace and freedom. The barriers now
are too great and impenetrable to most Nigerians. I can only hope and pray that
our mission of service is one that will make a small difference in one small
corner of the Third World. I also hope that as ambassadors of our bountiful
country we can adequately impart the kindness and generosity that exists in
the hearts of many Americans.I often remembered the words of a Nigerian woman who defined for me the real meaning of service. "Service," she said, "is the rent we pay to God for our space on Earth."