This is a new hospital that opened in August 2006. Until our team of 16 Navy medical types arrived on 6 September, the hospital staff had been mentored by an overworked contracter and a Navy family doc. We brought lab and X ray techs, a physical therapist, a dental technician, an administrative type, a pharmacist, an infectious disease internist, a radiologist and an anesthesiologist, plus yours truly. They have a limited lab with lots done by hand, including the reports. They have a nice X ray but just for plain images. The ER is used for storage since the volume is low enough to allow any serious cases to go right to a bed. Attached is a photo of one of the six 8-bed wards. 4 of the wards are open now with the ICU lieing fallow and the isolation ward used for storage.
Also attached is a picture of the one-room lab and a shot of the operating room with my good buddy, LCDR Don Sylvester (also my roomie). They do about 4 surgeries each week, mostly hernias and hemorrhoids. Their orthopedic surgeon just returned from a long illness so they hope to do some broken bone cases. We've seen a motorcycle injury with a broken nose (driving at night, no lights, no helmet, said hello to a concrete barrier) and a multiple fracture IED injury from about 100 miles to the south. Interesting medical cases: our first case of malaria since we arrived 2 weeks ago (gotten elsewhere), a kidney failure patient and a full blown case of TB. The docs at the ANA hospital are doing a good job under the circumstances and we hope to help expand the services.
We spent the last few days helping with an inventory of the hospital. Now we have a handle on what they have and what they need. Supplies are an issue since transport is slow from Kabul. When stuff arrives, it might be wrong, missing or expired. With the help from some coalition folks in Kabul, we expect things to get better and new/additional equipment to arrive soon. We even expect a new CT scan in the spring, a tremendous addition for a small hospital.
3 comments:
The facilities look impressive enough to me. Were you able to provide dialysis for the kidney patient (if indeed it was necessary)?
How many locals are being trained?
I was wondering: are you technically under ISAF/NATO command, or simply the US?
By the way, Penn St plays Michigan tomorrow. I'll refrain from talking trash here. I fear I might be outnumbered.
Now that the game is past tense, it was well played. I have great admiration for Joe Pa. I have few confederates here, compared to a number of Ohio State minions. I have a bet on the annual UM/OSU rivalry going (6 pack of Vernors ginger ale versus a box of Suzy-Qs).
The hierarchy here is complicated with 3 parallel orgs: the coalition which is mainly NATO; the ISAF which is mainly Afghani; and the US authority. We have dotted lines all over the place. I basically do what the US military command tells me. And don't ask about "CSTC-A" because it has everyone in the mix; Combined Security Transition Command of Afghanistan. Even more interesting: the Central Command for the US Armed Forces is the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Very little water involved but it is headed by a 4-star Navy type, Admiral Fallon. Indeed, 5 of the 7 conjoint commands are headed by admirals and the new chairman of the joint chiefs will be Admiral Mullen.
Oh, no, we had to transfer the patient to Bagram AFB for further treatment. The Herat ANA hospital doesn't justify the equipment needed for any kind of dialysis.
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