Medical Clinics
Our medical clinics bring American medical personnel into the villages periodically. During these visits, we provide medicines for treatments and train Malian personnel.
Medical Clinics
Practitioner's account: Every morning in the medical clinic starts with a lineup of patients. The triage person helps to identify those who are the sickest and moves them to the front. While this sounds easy, it is difficult; there are 100's of people in line. The intake person gets vitals, name age or date of birth if known and their general complaint. Then the practitioners with the aid of an interpreter, examine the patients, identify the main concern, and provide treatment. If this is a life threatening event which needs immediate attention, MFM will help the patient get to the capital to be seen and treated.
Practitioners utilize and perfect their physical diagnosis and communication skills. We can take nothing for granted – administering oral medication to a child can be a challenge, just to get the bottle open requires extra teaching time as they have no experience with liquid medicine bottles.
Even though we do not speak their language, the smile and hug we get for helping these people is very rewarding.
The sun begins to set. The line disappears; we are hot and tired. We retreat to the compound, tell our days stories and re-energize with a good meal and some sleep. With the sun rise comes another days work- the line of 100's reappears…