News from the Rotary Doctor Bank

Issue no 1, 2000 -- English edition -- home

Page: -- Contents -- 1, (2), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

• The constant worry -- editorial
• Will the hospital survive?
• Fight against time

The constant worry

It is like two different worlds, wrote one of our doctors in his report when he came home. Yes, so it is, and that is why the Doctor Bank exists. But there is also a constant worry.

Can we not do more?

Is it not enough that 150 doctors go out each year? Surely that is impressive?

Of course, but it is still a drop in the ocean.

Why is this? It is not because we lack doctors. Many of the doctors who went out in the late 1980s return year after year, and new ones, even those not yet ready with their studies, wait impatiently for their opportunity. Some of them-as we can read in this issue-have been out as "apprentices". Doctors from the Netherlands and other countries come to us. Perhaps the Rotary Doctor Bank, based in Malmö, will become international -- although strictly speaking, we are already if on a small scale.

But that drop in the ocean… How can we make it grow larger?

Now for the fun part. Apart from all the donations received, the Allowance can be the push forward that would make it possible to more than double our efforts! So: all who read this -- and we estimate that there are at least 30,000 Swedish readers of the printed newsletter -- either in the clubs or at home (or better, both!), have a bottle like the one illustrated and drop a ten-crown or banknote in each week. We will gladly send a label -- phone or write. And then after a time, set in the contents on our postgiro account: 900472-2.

Is 10 Crowns, or 20, or 100 a week too much? No, I don't think so. Consider that it goes directly to the efforts of our doctors and their assistants. And the dividend is the joy of knowing that this small change-and the larger donations-could not have been invested in any better aid for poor and sick people.

This is to give life a meaning.

- LARS BRAW -

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Will the hospital survive?

-- positive despite everything

Nursing students taught by Dr Gunnar Isaksson in Maseno. From left Jenipher Ayoma, Caroly Kaden, Lydia Aneki, Decirar Imbat and Lilian Chasaya.

The hospital in Maseno, Kenya, where the Doctor Bank has both surgeon relay and two jeep-doctors, is threatened by bankruptcy, and the question is if can survive. Surgeon Gunnar Isaksson, from Trelleborg, Sweden, returned there after two years and found the situation worrying, but at the same time says that much is positive.

"Much equipment is better than before, and there will surely be further improvements due to equipment from the Eric's Help, for example a new X-ray machine. The nursing school has reopened after being closed for a time. To hold lessons for the students there was a pleasing task."

Dr Isaksson also tells of saving a girl with Burkitts lymphoma, a tumor disease that quickly becomes fatal without treatment.

"This is something that gives feelings of joy and gratitude, when as a doctor I can very directly help save someone's life. This happens in obstetrics as well. A woman came from her home with a dramatic bleeding some weeks before the expected childbirth. The placenta was obstructing delivery (placenta previa). We treated the woman for shock, and performed a Caesarean while the lab arranged for a blood transfusion. She recovered and could go home to take care of her four children after a few days."

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Fight against time

-- and death

"We fought several times against time and death, transporting patients at a tremendous tempo to the hospital from the clinic in Kagoria, 55 km from Homa Bay,"

writes jeep-doctor Carl Tersmeden, from Avesta, Sweden. He was on his seventh assignment for the Doctor Bank.

"The road is almost impassible. Deep holes, water-filled riverbeds, and wide cracks make the trip take over an hour. In six weeks, I also had 12 flat tires.

"Homa Bay is a very suitable location for us jeep-doctors. The patients are too poor to reach the hospital on their own. The Doctor Bank concept is very good in that we go out to find those who need help and care instead of the other way around."