Ghana 2020

I have been back in the US for four days, and I wanted to do a final post on my experience in Ghana. My month spent in Cape Coast was life-changing and eye-opening. The organization that I went through, Child Family Health International (CFHI), works with their students to help us understand how healthcare is delivered in our host country. Instead of going for a week and providing medical care through a volunteer organization, we work with local physicians in the hospital to experience healthcare delivery on a day-to-day basis. As you know from my previous posts, seeing the healthcare disparities in Ghana and in many African countries was heart-breaking. I have spoken with many of my friends since returning about my experience, and whether they come from a medical background or not, they realize the differences in healthcare delivery and resources. No matter where I was working in the hospital, all of my fellow physicians knew exactly what they should be doing. The problem in Ghana is

Hello, friends! I am almost done with my third week here in Cape Coast, Ghana, and it has been a very eye-opening experience. Last week, I shared a little about the differences in medical care here in Ghana versus the US. I wanted to share a little more about the hospital system here in Ghana to provide some additional perspective. The wards are set up in each building with male and female medical and surgical wards being separate. These wards consist of three to four large rooms with 6-10 beds in each room. There are 2-3 isolation rooms in each ward for those patients that have some kind of infectious disease process. There are private rooms available for an additional cost, but usually patients who want these go to the private hospital rather than the public government-funded hospitals. One of the buildings holds the ICU and dialysis unit. The ICU has five beds. Patients who require an ICU stay usually have to wait due to limited availability, but they are also required to pay up-fro

Hi all! Miss you all so much, but I am still embracing the new experiences and journeys halfway across the world. This week I started my rotation at the hospital. I will be doing one week of Internal Medicine and two weeks in the Pediatric ward. I posted a picture below of the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. It looks much smaller than it is. The main hospital which is what you see holds the Accident and Emergency Ward (A & E ward) and outpatient services. Behind the main hospital are the various wards. There are male and female wards, a children's ward, surgical wards, OBGYN ward, and a delivery suite. I have shadowed residents during rounds where the disease processes have ranged from Deep Vein Thromboses (DVTs) to Malaria to HIV to Meningitis. Africa overall has a lot more communicable diseases than we actually see in the US. For example, during my year and a half of clinical rotations in the US, I have never actually seen meningitis. There are 4-5 cases in the hospital in Cape

Hello, friends! Today started week #2 in Ghana, and I am still enjoying myself. On Saturday, I went to Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle to learn a little about the history of Ghana. The castles I am referring to are historical landmarks that stand in memory of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Ghana was one of the main countries where African men and women were taken from their homes, imprisoned, tortured, and worse. Once captured, the African men and women were placed in dungeons in these castles to wait upwards of three months on the ship to the New World. While waiting, women were picked over and raped by the governors of these castles. If they were found pregnant, they were actually taken out of the castle to give birth, and these mixed children were given homes and schooling. In these dungeons, there was little light and ventilation. If anyone tried to escape, they were taken to an even smaller room with even less ventilation where they were not given food or water. Once they ente