Lifeline Malawi

Lifeline Malawi
Originally uploaded by yo_paully.

Today we visited a clinic called Lifeline Malawi in a small fishing village named Ngodzi on Lake Malawi. The clinic is operated by Dr. Chris Brooks. Dr. Brooks, his wife Heather and their daughter Chloe are from Calgary. Dr. Brooks started the clinic out of the back of his truck seven years ago, today he saw 170 patients at his clinic. One in three of those patients are HIV positive. The clinic was in relativity good condition, but by Canadian standards, this clinic would never pass. Though there is very little medicine to dispense, this clinic is a ray of light for the people of this region.

It was like we were medical students in a teaching hospital, we were in the room with Dr. Brooks as he saw some of his patients. One of the cases that we saw today included a woman that had cancer of the mouth (which was a very graphic sight). She traveled over 50 km to come to the clinic. In Malawi, that is a great distance. She had to travel by bus (which is actually a van that stuffs people in like sardines), then by taxi (which is actually an old bike with a pad for a passenger). There are only 3 doctors in all of Malawi that could treat this type of case. Dr. Brooks, gave her some antibiotics and bandaged her up, that's all he could do.

Another case was a young man that had scabies, today he found out that he was HIV positive. He had soars all over his lips, arms and legs. They do not have the resources to treat him, so all that could be done was to administer some antibiotics and vitamins. Counseling was also made available.

Toward the end of the morning, there was a 30 year old man that could barely stand up. Dr. Brooks advised this man to go to a hospital, he had prepared a letter stipulating the urgency of the situation. Unfortunately, the man refused to go. The reason that this man refused to go to the hospital was because he believed that he would never get out, he would go there to die. At that point, Dr. Brooks believed that he had only 24-48 hours to live without treatment.

We also saw a seven year old boy that has AIDS. He contracted AIDS vertically, which means that he received AIDS from his mother. This boy is being raised by his grandmother, since both of his parents had died of AIDS. His grandmother who is a widow, is taking care of 6 children. If this child presented in Canada, he would have immediately been admitted to Intensive Care, but since we are in Malawi there is nothing that could be done.

Lifeline Malawi is reaching many of the people in that region, unfortunately due to a lack of resources they aren't able to reach everyone. They are able to treat a number of ailments, but treatment for HIV/AIDS isn't available to this clinic, but the hope is that it will be available in the next 6 months. Meanwhile Lifeline Malawi continues to see people in this region daily, and is expanding.

For Dr. Brooks, this is just another day at Lifeline Malawi.