Tabora Tidings: St. Philip's Clinic (Part II)

On Friday, August 28,I spent the morning at St. Philip's Clinic. The day began at 8 a.m. with devotions for the staff followed by what appeared to be a very passionate organizational meeting of some kind. Then the patients were let in.

After a tour of the clinic, I sat in Dr. Jim Payton's consulting room while he saw patients. Dr. Jim is a retired English doctor who now spends more than half of every year here in Tabora volunteering his time at the clinic. He and his wife, Margaret, have been very hospitable to me.

Privacy doesn't seem to be as much of a concern here as it would be in a U.S. doctor's office. They haven't heard of HIPAA. Dr. Jim saw about 15 patients in the first hour and a half, and then saw most of them again when their test results came back. Almost everyone was tested for malaria, and most of them have it. A lot of people were tested for syphilis (which is very widespread here); but this Friday, as far as I know, none came back positive for syphilis. Many were tested for AIDS. There were a few cases of hookworm and kwashiorkor.

The clinic isn't able right now to admit anyone as an inpatient. They can refer patients to the government hospital in Tabora. Mama Francis (pictured below, translating for Dr. Jim) visits the patients in their homes in the evening and makes sure they're taking their medicines, getting fed, etc. It's not part of her job description; she just loves the patients. They call her "Mother Teresa" and "St. Teresa." She really is a saint.

Kwashiorkor is on the rise. Last week one little boy arrived at the clinic near death, and Dr. Jim has taken him into his home at least until he is strong enough to be placed with relatives. (The parents have evidently abandoned the child.) Part of the reason for the high incidence of kwashiorkor is that the harvest was poor, and there have been food shortages. But a lot of children get kwashiorkor when their mothers stop nursing. Breast milk is about the best thing for them, and the mothers don't seem to know which foods to give their children for the protein.

Dr. Jim had me take blood pressures, prod abdomina, and look into throats and ears, mainly (I think) to familiarize me with the symptoms of malaria and other diseases. As far as the patients were concerned, they were getting twice their money's worth: an international team of mzungu doctors. I also got to look at the blood specimens showing the damage malaria does to red blood cells.