Compassion Resource Warehouse was our source for almost 600 pounds of donated medical equipment and school supplies carried to Tanzania this January. They remain an extraordinary organization of devoted volunteers who sort and pack donations for overseas projects. Cast offs from our medical system and the community at large can be found at their Victoria warehouses and, as we discovered, its amazing to see what they have that a rural Tanzanian hospital can use. At Kilimanjaro, it was a pleasure to finally unpack our bags for Kilema Hospital.
Delivery of medical supplies to Kilema Hospital administrators, Dr. Massewe and Sr. Matron, with much appreciation….
Isabelle meets supplies in the ‘operating theater’, where mefix was favoured to dress fresh post op wounds!
We would like to thank Dr Russell Davidson for donating his medical microscope to Compassion Resource Warehouse. If he hadn’t, it would never have arrived to Kilema Hospital for student or hospital use.
The Zeiss microscope, below, was a prize and the lead educator at the new Laboratory Sciences School, Mr. Marawi, estimated it would last for the next 50 years! We plan to follow up with Zeiss Co. to get a X100 objective lens which the school will find useful. Also on the procurement list for the school, in case anyone should have:
spectrophotometer wavelength 300-950nm
Gas Analyser
4 Colorimeters
Electrophoresis apparatus
Since we are talking about medical equipment and friends...
Thank you to Drs. Kyaruzi and Goodluck for sharing their perspectives and experience with us during our stay. Nights in the operating theater were memorable and instructive for our team, in particular, a night where a power failure occurred during a cesarean section. Dr. K had not yet finished closing the wound when the room was plunged into darkness. I was asked to hold a battery lantern over the patient, which glowed weakly as the scrub nurse person ran out to alert a worker to start up the diesel generator. When I asked how long until power would be restored, Dr. K estimated a 10-15 minute delay period. Our lighting situation was remedied only by the arrival of Steve and his LED headlamp ( the Adilmans donated two). For patient safety what the operating theatre is in need of is a UPS (uninterruptible power supply), a simple device that would keep the lights and the ECG/BP monitor( if they had one) operating during a power outage, until the generator gets started. We are currently researching the best approach to solve this problem and hope to present to Rotary, both here and in Tanzania, an opportunity to help find a solution. But meanwhile…
Asante sana Dr. Kyaruzi for all your good work
and to Dr. Goodluck as well (an excellent name!).
We enjoyed our time with you both!
Stephanie