John Heimerl's 3rd Week In Zambia

This blog posting was authored by John Heimerl, M.D., 2nd year Pediatrics resident at the University of Minnesota.

We had another busy week at TTF.

Clinic days are full of patients to see. Here are two pictures from clinic.

Here is the TTF clinical team, along with a patient and his mother in the center.







Here I am with the pharmacist, Thomas.

I also had the chance to visit the large University Teaching Hospital
(UTH), which is the referral center for Zambia.

A nurse named Clements (the only male nurse I saw during my visit) give me a tour, which I limited to three hours. He showed me each section of the pediatric wards.

The pediatric department is spread out over a number of buildings, each housing a different ward.

I saw the emergency ward, then Admitting. From Admitting, patients are sent to one of the five remaining wards--Malnutrition, Heme/Onc, PICU, General Pediatrics (x2) and Endocrine.

I wasn't able to take any pictures of the inside of the hospital, but here is what the grounds and building look like.

Also last week I was able to do something I failed to do on my last trip to
Zambia--I took a bus 400km south to Victoria Falls, which borders
Zimbabwe (I hear we made good time; it only took us 6 hours, and I've heard it can take up to 10).

As you can see, the waterfalls were spectacular. In a couple of sections, you are drenched by the spray from the water falling, and it was entertaining to watch visitors get drenched.

Well, I have to get back to clinic to see the rest of the patients. Hope to send more pictures soon.

Cheers,
John