The Ultrasound lives on and impressively so!

Day 1, incredible. For those of you who donated to help purchase the Sonosite ultrasound for Dhaka Medical College Hospital rest assured your money was very well spent! I had the great pleasure of rounding with the ICU team this morning. The first patient we encountered had a diagnostic dilemma requiring the help of bedside ultrasound. One of the critical care trainees took the ultrasound probe and showed me all the cardiac views and gave me an assessment. Jaw-dropped I watched as someone I myself didn’t train showed me the techniques I left behind. What does this mean? It means the trickle down effect WORKED! We had spent extra time with Dr. Tarek Reza, Dr. Ferdous Rahman and Dr. Mohammad Asudazzaman, and these three physicians were pivotal in passing along the training. They surpassed all of our expectations by a landslide. 

After rounds one of the trainees presented 6 cases from the prior two weeks in which ultrasound was successfully used and especially in cases where the patients were unable to obtain an X-ray quickly or unable to transfer for any higher level imaging. In all instances the use of the ultrasound was incredibly helpful in patient care and clinical decision making.

The machine is kept clean and maintained well, stored safely and all of its capabilities are maximized including saving images and creating folders of pathology so as to aide in teaching the next generation of trainees all of whom now have point-of-care ultrasound exposure and experience from day 1!

Here are a few pictures, taken with permission, of the presentation given today. Incredible stuff!

My Return To Bangladesh: The Rohingya Refugee Crisis and beyond

The Rohingya Crisis

What you need to know

-The Rohingya are a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, they have been called the "world's most persecuted minority"
-Myanmar's government does not recognize the Rohingya as lawful citizens though they have been in the region for over a century, they were denied land, property rights and access to education and employment
-attacks on the Rohingya have been widespread, and has been called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
-more than half a million Rohingya have fled for neighboring Bangladesh since just August 2017

-many organizations(BRAC, Doctors without Borders, UNICEF, MedGlobal, HOPE Foundation) have been involved in the widespread response but there is still so much to be done
-slowly infrastructure is being built, hospitals, clinics and the large task of providing sustainable solutions are underway including local sourcing of translators, educators, health care professionals

How Can We Help?
I will be leaving for Bangladesh in a week and will have an opportunity to spend some time in the Refugee camps with the team from MedGlobal (www.medglobal.org), helping in any way possible.

So many of you have sent me supplies to take with me and the suitcases are full! I know many more are looking to contribute, one option is to donate on the MedGlobal site, alternatively I will be releasing a link for a GoFundMe campaign, in both instances I can ensure that the money you are sending is going towards health care supplies and health care delivery for the Rohingya people who are in desperate need. Med Global is looking to provide a lasting footprint, sustainable solutions to help improve long term outcomes for this group of people who have undergone so much strife.


Bangladesh Ultrasound Initiative: Update 
As far as the ongoing ultrasound project in Dhaka--those of you who were following along last year and those of you who donated, you will be happy to know that one year later and our efforts in Dhaka have been sustained mostly due to the incredible persistence of the physicians we spent extra time with allowing them to become trainers themselves. I will be returning in just a week and will have a chance to share all the successes with you all as your contributions made this possible!


Thanks for coming along on this journey and stay tuned!