Rural Emergency Medicine


He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all. Willliam Osler

The sails are set, the end coordinates are locked in and the journey begins. This is the start of my adventure to Haydom Lutheran Hospital in rural Tanzania. It will not be a particularly long one, amounting to two months in total. But I will be truly letting go of a technology-centric world, and heading back to the basics of medicine and of life. It's time to set sail, with my trusted chart in hand (Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine & Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine - turns out I need two charts) and explore the sea that awaits in rural Tanzania.

About Haydom Lutheran Hospital
Haydom Lutheran Hospital (HLH) is situated in North-East Tanzania, only a stones throw away from Arusha (5 hours by Public Land-cruiser). It was built by the Norwegian Lutheran Mission in 1953, and originally had a little over 40 beds.

In 2013, it now has over 400 beds, several departments (surgical, medical, paediatric), outreach clinics and a school of nursing. To find out more about HLH go to their official website.

Finally because I'm largely a visual learner, I've included a little video to provide you with some more information about HLH.
   


HaydomHealth.org
To chronicle this journey, and not dull or bore my traditional IVLine readership, I've set up (quickly over the weekend) HaydomHealth.org. HaydomHealth will also be used to raise awareness about some of the challenges facing the hospital, but also the heart-warming stories of it's workers, volunteers and patients. I will also share some of my experiences on some of the more leisurely activities to do whilst in Africa. Finally to act as another starting point for those interested in volunteering at HLH in the future.

So I hope that a few of you, will jump ship for a bit and take part in the HaydomHealth blog. People's support is truly appreciated.

How you can help
Finally there are number of ways you can help both me and Haydom Hospital. I'm looking to give back as much as I can to the Haydom community.

Donation
Donations are important stream of support for the hospital. As such I've set-up an paypal donation account, so that you can send some spare change their way.


Every person who donates $10 or more to this account will have there name listed at the end of my HaydomHealth Documentary (which will be released upon my return to Australia). A lump-sum donation will be made to HLH on June 1st 2013 from all your individual contributions.

You can also donate directly to HLH via their own donation page. HLH also needs a lot of equipment and will gladly accept a lot of it (anything from computers to ultrasound machines) - see a full list of things they would like here.

Get involved and spread the word
One person can only do so much, and I believe with the help of each of you I can get the word out about Haydom Lutheran Hospital, and ensure their survival as a hospital in the coming years.
 

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