GoFundMe is finally set up! Please join!

​https://gofund.me/e099b23a

Most of my Global Health Fellowship year is spent here on the Thailand-Burma border helping a 30-year old refugee clinic to develop emergency medicine and acute care focused care. The patients are escapees from one of the world's longest civil wars and have become stateless refugees. The mission of the clinic I am helping is to provide Healthcare as a Human Right. I have seen that many of the displaced people are very poor and often cannot afford even simple life-saving diagnostics and treatments such as chest X-rays, antibiotics, immunosuppressants for diseases that are ravaging their vital organs or transfer to the bigger hospital for severe hypoxia or sepsis. Others need simple things like walkers, crutches, physiotherapy equipment or nutrition (generally that consists most basically of formula for malnourished babies and rice and oil for adults). Healthcare providers in Burma have been targeted and forced out of the country, so many Burmese come across the border to our clinic seeking help.  I know we cannot provide for every need and we cannot save everyone. The medical facility runs on donations and has a very reliable, professional and above-board staff. My hope is to create a fund to help provide the basic medical diagnostics and treatments that can save a limb, a life or help them get to the bigger hospital when we cannot provide what they need. 100% of the funds (other than GoFundMe's fee) will go to medications and medical diagnostic tests or basic needs such as nutrition and vitamins. I will also be donating my own money on top of the GoFundMe for needs that come up.


The exchange rate is roughly 1 USD = 33 Thai baht.

Here is an idea of the cost of care here, that even though inexpensive, many cannot afford:
Renal function blood test $2
Liver function blood test $3
Hepatitis panel $14
HIV Viral load $67
Chest X-ray: 300 baht (<$10)
Limb X-ray: 600 baht (~$18)
1 week of IV antibiotics that the clinic does not have access to (I will order from India): $50-120 USD
1 month of oral immunosuppressants (i.e. for lupus patients): $60
CT Head to diagnose stroke or internal head bleeding: 30,000 baht (~$909)
Admission to the bigger hospital: 10,000 baht ($303) base cost + any services provided (i.e. one night of acute care cost my patient 40,000 baht)

Thank you for anything you feel led to contribute! I can provide more details as well or a case profile detailing specific needs for a patient upon private message request

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto

Image
I\"ve been telling people for a year that I am going to be in Thailand. I\"ve realized lately that geographically, yes, it is still Thailand. But being so close to the Burma border, this fellowship has very little intersection with Thai people, customs or language. Even the food here is heavily influenced by Burmese culture. At our hospital, everyone speaks Burmese or Karen, the staff is almost all Burmese, the patients are strictly Burmese.  Traditional Burmese Karen clothing  I thought I would need to learn Thai. But actually it\"s more helpful to learn Burmese or Karen. I know a tiny bit of Karen language from working with the refugee microenterprise in Houston in the past. I even have Karen clothes handmade by my Houston refugee friends. So I am happy to be among Burmese and Karen people again.  The two biggest adjustments I\"ve been making at work in the clinic/hospital are: 1) Adjusting to the limited resources and the poverty of our patients (which limits the...
Read more

We Use What We Have

Image
​ Sometimes I get frustrated because we just don’t have basic equipment we need for patients.  For example, here is the baby incubator I saw when I first got here. Yikes. I was planning to scrub it down with bleach myself.  Then I saw we had a better one, but it still made me nervous: And then 2 weeks ago we got this amazing one: I was very excited we got a donation of state-of-the-art medical equipment.  There are a lot of other things I hope for here. The thing is, sometimes the hospital isn’t ready for new tech. I’ve been on a bit of a soapbox about us getting more lab test capability. We have CBC, POC Glucose and urine pregnancy, Total bili, malaria smear, and urinalysis without micro.  We have a TON of cirrhosis, alcohol withdrawal and altered mental status patients. I’m working on a sepsis protocol because we have so many deaths from sepsis. But we can’t check lactate, sodium, potassium, calculate anion gap, creatinine, LFTs or anything else for critical patien...
Read more

Got potassium?

Image
​Today we had a young lady with Type I diabetes who presented with blood glucose in the 300s, diffuse weakness or and 3 ketones in her urine. She also had diffuse abdominal tenderness but no distention or guarding or bleeding anywhere. Vitals rather stable.  She had been off of her diabetes medication for a few months. She actually had received care at the local Thai hospital in the past and had been an oral medication only.  There was some concern for DKA.  Interestingly, the head medic pulled out their guidelines for chronic disease, and I peered over her shoulder while I worked on a quality measures project I’m doing. The DKA guidelines said to give 1 liter IVF per hour. That is all. Their only clue to potential acidosis was ketones in the urine.  They can’t test metabolic panel, pH; don’t have insulin drip or potassium infusions. We have subQ insulin leftover from patients who have expired, and a bottle of insulin I bought at the local pharmacy just in case. We ...
Read more