Patients in the Himalayas Grateful for Care

BY RACHEL EDWARDS, MD   I traveled to India in August 2014 with Himalayan Health Exchange (HHE), which organizes groups of attending physicians, residents, medical students, and nurses from around the world to travel to one of the most remote parts of the world, deep in the Himalayan Mountains. Our route took us to the Pangi Valley of Northern India, where the road we traveled has only existed for a decade and is impassable during the winter months when the road is covered in snow. The people who live there are resilient and hardened by their environment of mountainous terrain and harsh climate.     Our group, escorted by a talented team of men, traveled by caravan to remote areas where we would set up camp and clinics. The local people would travel long distances to be seen. Some had acute complaints, some had already seen a doctor and wanted a second opinion, and some just wanted to see the show.           I had the opportunity to see pathology that I would otherwise never see in the United States, but most of the patients complained of common disease processes like arthritis. Sufferers of this common ailment received little relief without access to NSAIDs or acetaminophen.           This baby suffered from spina bifida. Nothing could be done for her in our clinic except to refer her to a hospital, but we were able to give her mother folic acid supplementation.     This 15-year-old-boy suffered from scoliosis and chronic leg pain from wa...
Source: Going Global - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs