Felix Kawooya

Thanks for the great work and I appreciate the support given to me from Wells mountain foundation. I was privileged to work at Rapha medical centre a hospital best in my home area for  3 weeks.I was happy to be be joined by Grace whom we worked together for the period we spent at Rapha. it was a learning  period and an opportunity to give a hand in the hospital where the number of health workers are few. We saw many patients and am  humbled to have been part of the health team during that period.
This hospital has 40 beds, a maternity, and a laboratory with blood transfusion services and  it is run by a clinical officer.  Doctors  always don’t want to work in  rural area and with the help of Wells mountain foundation my dream is to complete school, go back and serve my community .
Pregnant Mothers that  can’t make it  have to be transported on motorcycles to hospitals that are very  far ( 50km)  from this community and  there is a great need to introduce preventive methods to those that are not yet infected with HIV especially through schools. 90% of girls do not study beyond primary school because of pregnancies which as well exposes them to HIV. There is a high prevalence rate of HIV and many that are infected cannot  access adequate care.

                                                                                                    Felix and Grace Musiimenta both volunteered at Rapha

In one of the pictures the  3 weeks baby who was born from home was brought very ill with pus draining from the arm pit. she had a big pocket of pus on the same side of her back ( pyomyositis- meaning collection of pus in a muscle). We had to drain the pus under local anesthesia by making a small incision. ideally, this will require general anesthesia but the only money the mother  had was to bring her daughter to this health unit next to her. Referring her to a hospital 50km away with a theatre  where general anesthesia can be given, meant taking her baby home to die. These are some of the challenging situations involving taking care of patients in  resource limited rural areas. However, where possible we always improvise to save lives. After 10 days of intravenous antibiotics and daily dressing, this baby was discharged very healthy.

The younger boy fell off a bicycle which for some time didn’t have one of the peddle. The free nail went through his leg damaging several structures including the muscles. Under local anesthesia we were able to suture him and the wound healed perfectly. 

The group photo is of one of the family near the hospital, taken when we had gone for home visiting. We were health educating about Homestead  hygiene ( waste disposal, having a proper kitchen for cooking, refuse disposal, water storage and boiling, food storage and waste control).