Oxygen

House of Bloods Ng’anda Yabulowa

 Is it really the end of May? Each time I travel abroad, I somehow expect time to reset to the day after we left when I get back home. Is it still May 22nd at home? This morning the students have rounds or operating theater observations while a group of us went to the Medaical Laboratory, called the Ng’anda Yabulowa – the house of bloods here. It might sound a little strange to call the Medical lab the house of bloods- but this is where people know they go to have a blood sample drawn and tested.

Here we met Rogers Moono and Lweendo Muchaili who showed us around the labs. They have many sophisticated instruments to test samples for red and white blood cell counts, types of white blood cells and specifically cells presenting CD4 –which are indicators either of anemia, infection or HIV/AIDS. In the microbiology labs they were staining for TB and malaria, and it was interesting for the students to see the application of staining methods they have practiced in class. In the labs here (much like in other places) the focus is on affordable, rapid, and reliable testing of the samples.

Lweendo Muchaili

Rogers Moono

After the tour of the labs, we stopped by the machine shop to visit Steve who has been fixing the oxygen concentrators with George Moono and others. There are 8 oxygen concentrators here at Macha, and before Steve arrived only 4 of them were working, and one was only increasing oxygen concentration by 2 % (so, really there were only 3 working). He has already fixed several of them so that now there are 8 concentrators working to 80-90% oxygen!  Next he is going to work on making them more humidity tolerant by adding an additional filter to the units. Humidity is a problem because if the filtering material in the concentrator gets wet, it is ruined - which is bad if your rainy season lasts from October to April (as it does here).

Steve and George and the Concentrator

Steve Fixing stuff

Steve’s project is really important for the hospital here. Dr. Thuma was talking to us about the health problems that most commonly lead to death, especially in children. One of the leading causes is Pneumonia. If the patient is treated with oxygen their chances of survival are quite high, but without oxygen many of the patients die. Macha hospital is too far from the large cities to get tanks of oxygen delivered to the hospital regularly, so they use oxygen concentrators to enrich the air (by filtering out nitrogen for those of you who are interested). So, Steve is not only working on fixing the machines that they have, but is also working to train the mechanics so that they are able to keep the concentrators running long after we leave.

Sunset (picture taken by Larry)

Speaking of leaving, we all depart this afternoon for our two night homestays in the villages! You can expect to see two of these (or at least we can) before you should expect to hear from any of us again! We are all excited to meet our new host families and see what village life is like!