The Way It Is...

This is a picture of a patient’s grandmother laundering the dressings that were removed from her grandson. Because of hospital wide shortages of quality dressings, family members must wash their outer dressings daily to be reused the next day. This certainly is not practicing sterile technique or even clean technique by any means, certainly not acceptable by US standards, but there is simply no other alternative. If they don’t wash the dressings they have, the child will go without the dressings. The boy was burned over 23% of his body. At first the family did not divulge how the accident occurred, they told us he was pushed into a fire by a friend. Days later it was revealed that he fell into a fire while practicing a traditional dance. Likely they hid this from us as some Malawians view traditional dancing as voodoo or possibly associated with unchristian-like teachings. This is of course irrelevant to his treatment, and tomorrow he will leave a healed 12 year old boy after 3 skin graft operations.

DeSales University 5k Walk/Race to Benefit Africa Burn Relief

The DeSales University PA Program Student Society will host it's second annual 5k Walk/Race to help raise funds for our program serving burn victims in rural Malawi, Africa.
Please consider joining us for an amazing Autumn day to support a great cause. I will be flying in from Malawi to support this event and raise awareness of the Africa Burn Relief Program in Pennsylvania communities.

Place: DeSales University; 2755 Station Ave, Center Valley, PA 18034
Time: Start 9am-registration, until about 12noon
Date: October 16th, Saturday
Price: 10$ Students/ 15$ non-students
Details: You can register and pay the day of the event at 9am. (cash/check)
A silent auction will accompany the race featuring handmade Malawian and Zimbabwean artworks. Credit card, check or cash accepted for the silent auction portion. Short presentation to follow.
For pre-registration details, please email me at africaburnrelief@gmail.com.

I deeply thank the DeSales University PA Program Society for organizing and supporting this event.

In the Headlines...

September 3, 2010
A central Malawi newspaper, The Nation, reads; "Mother Recounts the Ordeal of Losing 2 Sons and Youngest Daughter" in what appeared to be a suicide ritual. The mother of the three ages 31, 27, and 16 perished after throwing themselves into a blazing fire outside of the parents home. Another child who initially survived, was taken to a Blantyre Hospital but later died of severe burns.
"The deaths followed three days and nights of continuous prayer to exorcise their parents of alleged witchcraft. One of the children undressed their 52 yr old mother and then attempted to throw her also in the fire, but she managed to escape. She and her husband fled the home running to neighbors for help. They returned just when the children were throwing themselves onto the fire, back first, hands clenching a Bible each. The tragic drama lasted for 5 hours." The mother stated, 'it hurts to recall the picture of my children jumping to their deaths. The loss of Annie, my youngest daughter, is the most painful out of the three because I know she was pushed. She was never part of the ritual.'

A Farewell and a Blister...

It has been only 6 weeks since we admitted Tim and baby Victor. After 3 surgeries each, the brothers who won the hearts of everyone on the ward, will return to their far away village with their parents and go-go(grandmother). I can hardly believe it is time to let them go. I must admit, I was in shock when Victor survived in the early days after his burn, particularly with all odds against him when we discovered he was also suffering from malaria. He will have challenging days ahead of him, but luckily his parents are incredibly supportive and I believe they will make every effort to return for the physical therapy he requires.
Tim has done remarkably well. He has a contagious smile. Many of the kids fear when they see me, because they know their dressing will be changed, but Tim was always calm, polite and we could always get a smile out of him (quite abnormal for my patients!).
They both came to my mind when I reached into the oven for a pan without a proper oven mit the other day (yes, stupid!). This of course burned my hand and hurt like all heck. Nothing would stop the pain unless I had it in ice cold water. It hurt for hours, and eventually a less than one centimeter blister appeared. We've all done this...but that night I could not imagine the scene for this family when their only 2 sons suffered burns over 20% of their little bodies. The pain had to be absolutely unbearable for the hours it took for them to arrive to the hospital. I am so happy the family somehow made it to our hospital. If they would have landed at the hospital closest to them they would have been in a ward that does not provide wound care or specialized surgery. I think the family realizes this, they thanked me endlessly every day I visited and many times over on their farewell day.
If you are a donor, you should be proud, helping to build this program gave this family their kids back today.

Shipment Arrives

It was a year ago when I first started packing up my garage at my Phoenix home, preparaing for this year long stay in Malawi. There, boxes upon boxes on various assorted medical supplies had been donated and filled half of my 18x12 ft garage! Containers literally went to the ceiling. It was a large task and took a team of weekend warrior volunteers to sort through, but in the end 30 large boxes were stuffed with valuable supplies. At that time we had no idea that plans were underway for the hospital to build a burn ward and that these supplies would stock the shelves of a future constructed burn ward. I am looking forward to itemizing and seeing these shelves filled, hopefully this November. It is my hope that many of these items will last the unit for 9-12 months. An estimate to make donors most proud for putting their utmost effort in donating and displacing me in my own garage!
Donated supplies from the US are very important to our program. The quality of these supplies are by far greater than those I can purchase in Malawi. If you are a medical professional or product rep interested in supply donation please contact me at my private email africaburnrelief@gmail for an itemized list and warehouse address where items can be sent.

Prevention is the Best Treatment

60% of all patients we treat in Nkhoma are less than age 6. This disturbing figure calls for strategies to help prevent these burn injuries. Africa Burn Relief is working to target these children and their parents to help give them the education tools they need to think twice when kids are nearby when cooking or near heating fires. Fortunately, with the help of child psychologist, Dr. Rimmer and illustrator, Allyson Rimmer we have brought a culture appropriate and Chichewa translated children's prevention book to rural Nkhoma, Malawi. Luka's Safety Adventure is a coloring book that teaches Malawian children how to stay safe around environmental factors which they are most vulnerable to; fires, road accidents, and drownings.
Pictured is 6 yr old Tim with his book. As he is on bedrest after a recent surgery, he will need all the entertainment we can find to keep him in bed!

ABR Seeks Directed Donor for Youngest At-Risk Burn Patient

Baby Victor, featured earlier in my blog, was severely burned at the young at of 4 weeks old. He is progressing in his healing process, which is miraculous to say the least. He has made it through some very difficult weeks. I have confidence that with one more surgery he will make it to proper wound healing.
The obstacle then becomes his function. Now at just 7 weeks old there is no way to tell if he will ever be able to walk correctly after such a devastating injury. It will take a year of intensive therapy, if not longer, to determine what function each of his disfigured feet and ankles he will have. Will his new grafted skin be able to stretch as he rapidly as he grows in infancy?
What he needs is the best chance possible to prevent him from a severe disablity. We are fortunate to have one Physical Therapy assistant at our hospital who can help rehabilitate young Victor over his critical year of recovery.
Although we never ask for a directed donor for a specific patient, baby Victor is the exception. He is the youngest and most severe burn in a infant ever treated in Nkhoma. He is highly at risk of severe handicap. I am seeking an interested donor to consider funding his transport to and from the hospital (30 minute minibus drive) twice a month for PT sessions. As a rule, ABR does not fund transport, but if an interested donor would agree to fund this piece of his critical rehab we would be most grateful. The cost of this transport, plus his PT sessions would cost about $25 per month.
If you have an interest in this story, please email me directly at africaburnrelief.gmail.com.

Updated: Aug, 24
Many thanks to the Orlowsky-Ferhat family for graciously meeting our request to fund Victor's burn rehabilitation for an entire year!