Milestones and big dreams

CCU

Published June 21, 2013, last updated on April 9, 2018 under Voices of DGHI

By Alyssa Zamora
DGHI Communications Specialist

After a day like today, I’m convinced Duke faculty working with partners around the world is a game-changer.

I’ve spent two weeks on the ground in Eldoret, Kenya and surrounding communities to learn about the impactful work of our faculty and students at the Duke Global Health Institute and also our partners at the Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health. Our people are on the ground listening to community needs, working with local partners (and developing friendships along the way), and working toward solutions on complex health problems. They are using science to inform community interventions and health programs – whether it be to connect pregnant women with care, reduce the burden of malaria, address mental health and HIV, or provide better clinical care.

At the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital where several Duke faculty and cardiologists work, including Eric VelazquezJerry Bloomfield and John Lawrence, the number of cardiac care patients has tripled in recent years. There is a high demand for more resources dedicated to a growing burden of NCD’s affecting Kenyans – heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, etc. As I toured the wards this week, I saw more patients than beds. I learned it’s extremely common to see two or three patients sharing a bed, people who likely have never met and may have different health needs.

But, today’s ribbon-cutting ceremony was a momentous occasion. Duke Department of Medicine Chief Mary Klotman stood by the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Health and many others from Duke, the hospital, the Kenyan government and the public, to officially celebrate a new 10-bed cardiac care unit. The unit is outfitted with equipment that we see in the U.S., not in a low-resource health care setting like Kenya. Connected to the unit is a new pharmacy, an existing outpatient area and a diagnostic space complete with echocardiogram and electrocardiogram machines. Jerry Bloomfield emphasized that the ability to identify, care for and treat patients all in one area is a critical step forward.

The effort, which is accompanied by cardiac care training of health care workers, is the result of four years of work and dedication from collaborators at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and our partners at the Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health, working through the AMPATH Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Disease (CVPD) Center of Excellence with funding from the Hock Family Foundation.

It was a special day.

When I asked Jerry what motivates him to get up and go to work each day, he told me he wants to see a time when Kenyans and Africans receive the best health care possible. It takes big dreams like this, amazing working partnerships and lots of hard work to reach new milestones in health care. Today, that milestone is the impressive new cardiac care unit in Eldoret – a first of its kind in the region, if not the country. 

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