To those that contributed, THANK YOU! What you have done is contribute to a project that is not just a one time effort but the beginning of a long term educational intervention which is meant to be sustainable and cost effective.
To those of you just joining the journey welcome! Below is a summary of what we have been up to!
Bangladesh is a country rich with culture yet rife with poverty. Though there are many aspects of this country that have thrived i.e. the garment industry, agriculture; still there remains a large deficit in the area of health-care delivery. There are a sub-set of hospitals which provide care to those who cannot afford private medical care. These hospitals fall under the category of a resource-limited setting. In a survey distributed by our team to one such setting we discovered that X-rays and CT scans are not readily available nor reliable. The mortality rate surely rises with the delay of diagnoses and therefore management. In such a setting we will be introducing the use of an ultrasound machine at the bedside, a mode of imaging which has been vastly integral in rapid assessment of respiratory disease, trauma patients, abdominal catastrophes, etc.
Over the last several months with your help we have raised $11,600.00. $10,000 of this total went towards the purchase of the ultrasound machine itself along with corresponding accessories (for example the probe which is used to acquire the image). There was a small tax that was taken by the GoFundMe campaign and an added cost for safe and LEGAL shipping of the machine to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Below is an image of the model that we will be using.
There have been many people involved in the organization of this project and its launch many of whom I will begin to name as the journey continues. These are the people who have ensured the space needed to conduct teaching workshops, and have taken the responsibility to recruit interested physicians. The excitement of our team is palpable and we are thrilled to finally get this underway!
I am embarking on an almost 36 hour journey to Dhaka starting tomorrow, 1/26/2017. I will be chronicling this entire process and hope to keep you all close as you too are a part of this already fulfilling journey towards a sustainable medical solution in a resource-limited country.
lastly, if you would still like to donate, that is possible by clicking on the following link:
https://www.gofundme.com/BDUSInitiative
Additional money raised will go towards ultrasound gel used to obtain ultrasonic images, sterile covers for the ultrasound, publishing fees to create copies of an ultrasound manual and towards ancillary costs of building and maintaining the teaching workshops.
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