Liberia Medical Mission (Lmm), 2020
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LIBERIA MEDICAL MISSION (LMM), 2020 LIBERIA MEDICAL MISSION 2020 Summary Report of Activities By: Joseph Sackor Executive Director/Chairman of the Liberia Medical Mission Background Liberia Medical Mission organizes and implements a lifesaving, medical mission trip to Liberia every two years, to provide free medical services to underserved and impoverished communities. The mission also includes training and workshop programs aimed at beefing up the current local healthcare capacity. The team comprises of three functional areas - Mobile Outpatient Clinics in collaboration with local physicians and nurses; Eye treatment (Cataract surgeries, assessment, and distribution of glasses); Mental Health (training of providers and general awareness). The Liberia Medical Mission (LMM) extends its profound appreciation to all its partners, members, and donors for their generous contributions to the success of this year’s Medical Mission to Liberia. With your unwavering support and prayers, the team shipped to Liberia two, 40-ft containers with donated medications, medical supplies, medical 1 books, clothes, and shoes – worth over $3,000,000 (which included airlifting of more than $2.9 million dollars’ worth of medications from Direct Relief in California, Americares and Brother’s Brothers Foundation), The team provided FREE medical, educational, and psychosocial services to more than 5,233 Liberians. Thanks to our dedicated and ever committed providers, nurses, Psychologists, and volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this a reality. The Medical Mission to Liberia took place from February 28 – March 15, 2020. This was the fifth mission implemented by our small but dedicated organization, comprised of a General Surgeon, Emergency Room physicians, a Pediatrician, 2 Nurse Practitioners of diverse specialties, Staff Nurses, Clinical Psychologists, a Bio-Medical Engineer, Information Technologists, and local volunteers. The medical mission team of 32 professionals, all volunteers, including the Executive Leadership of Liberia Medical Mission (LMM) covered their own travel expenses for the duration of the mission. The primary focus of this year’s mission centered around general health assessment and treatment of diabetic and hypertensive cases, Mental Health awareness and training of mental health providers, Eyecare (screening, distribution of glasses, and free cataract surgeries) and repair of diagnostic equipment at no cost to the hospitals and clinics. Our focus on this patient population stemmed from the previous assessment and the availability of donated medications and supplies from our donors. The medical mission accomplished the following: Diagnosed, treated, and managed each patient appropriately. Educated patients on disease prevention and healthy lifestyles. 2 Dispensed medications to underserved population that could not afford them. Distributed needed medical supplies and remnant medications to more than twenty hospitals and clinics. Established strong partnerships with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR), APM Terminal, the office of the First Lady of Liberia, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and other critical local institutions. Organized a day’s workshop for ex-combatants and young school teenage girls in Paynesville and Brewerville, respectively. Organized workshop on leadership and psychosocial issues, for 25 Paramedics and police officers, at Liberia National Police Headquarters at no cost to the Government. Paired ten local nurses with our visiting medical practitioners for knowledge transfer. In collaboration with UNICEF Liberia, our Youngest volunteer, Jamilah Sillah (12 years old) from Macon, GA, donated 200 pairs of new sneakers to two orphanage centers at Monrovia. From our assessment, illnesses observed to be on the rise among Liberian older adults (40-70 yrs old), include primarily hypertension, diabetes, ulcers, urinary tract infections, and ophthalmic infections. HIV/AIDS, and abdominal pain were high among the younger (16-35 years old) generation. The facilities and equipment available to us required inventiveness, and flexibility to function – in hard to work environments. Our goal was to assist everyone as much as we were able, under the resource constraints of the practice settings. Most of the kids (0-12 yrs old) seen were malnourished and dehydrated. We ran into an 8-month old child who was severely malnourished. According to sources, the mother of the child had tried to starve him for days because she couldn’t afford to take care of him. We referred the case to UNICEF during our debriefing; they took the responsibility of follow up. It is worth mentioning that some of our patients were hearing their medical diagnoses for the first time. Some patients with pre-existing medical problems were overwhelmed with the burden of not being able to pay for prescribed medications when they visited their private clinics/doctors. They have to choose between feeding their families and buying their medications. Feeding their families often wins out with their limited resources. Patients seen during the mission were very appreciative of the mission’s services. They thanked us, our donors, and partners infinitely after they received their treatments and medicines, free of charge. Through the efforts of the LMM Medical Mission, in collaboration with its local and international donors, and local coordinating committees and volunteers, lives were changed, and many lives saved as a result. Everyone who contributed and participated in this year’s mission can be proud of the accomplishments and successes of which they were all an integral part. Without a doubt, the credits go to our donors and the team members, who worked tirelessly during the long days in less than ideal conditions, never 3 complained, and remained upbeat with positive attitudes in providing complete care and concern for every patient seen in our clinics. Outpatient Clinics The mission was a daunting challenge. With a goal to see and treat as many patients as time and resources could permit, our medical practitioners – aided by volunteers and local clinic staffs – treated and dispensed meds to patients at the following locations: Johnsonville Community Health Center Above: Patients waiting to be seen in LMM’s clinic at Johnsonville Health Center 4 5 Below: Our Providers stabilize one of a critically ill patient at Battery Factory Clinic 6 Group of 77 Disabled community – Newport Street, Monrovia, Monsterrado County 7 Charlesville – Margibi County Photo provided at Parental Request 8 9 Below: Patients line up for Registration at Banjor Clinic 10 11 Below: LMM’s Nurse educates patients in their native language on disease management and healthy lifestyle Mental Health Workshop Dr. Williametta Simmons- Bakassa and Prof Wali organized Psycho social workshop for ex-combatants/Drug Addicts(Zogos). The seminar centered around Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). During the workshop, the participants underscored some salient points about marginalization in the community and the difficulty of getting a good job due to their current circumstances. There were a total of 50 participants, and the workshop lasted for 4 hours Dr. Simmons with Ex-Combatants/Drug Addicts(Zogos) during PTSD workshop Below are the pictures of Ex-Combatants 12 After the Ex-Combatants’ workshop, a 2-hour gender violence workshop was held with 75 students from a middle school in Brewerville, outside Monrovia, Montserrado County. The workshop was interactive, and it helped the organizers to comprehend some of the social vices and violence directed at young girls in the various communities. Drug consumption and prostitution were among the main issues that were also discussed during the workshop. Our Mental Health team, in collaboration with the administrators at ES Grimes Mental Facility in Monrovia, conducted a 2-day training for the staff. Similar training on leadership and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was held with 25 paramedics and police officers at the National Police Headquarters. The Inspector-General of the Police and the Director of the ES Grimes mental facility appreciated the training and asked that LMM continues to provide such a training remotely. L Above: LMM’s Leadership and PTSD training at the Police Headquarters in Monrovia 13 Dr Simmons at ES Grimes mental Facility Eye Care / Cataract Surgery at JFK Hospital Dr Baah in the Operating Theater 14 Our host ophthalmologist, Dr Guizie and our surgeons, Drs Thomas Baah from Accra, Ghana, Dr Aisha Sheriff from Abuja, Nigeria did outreach and prescreened over 800 patients, 501 of whom were candidates for cataract surgery. Unfortunately, due to unforeseeable technical circumstances and some challenges at the local facility, our surgeons were only able to perform 34 cataract surgeries free of charge and dispensed medications and glasses to non-surgical candidates and those that needed reading glasses. The primary challenges we encountered were the availability of enough surgical rooms for our visiting surgeons and the local physicians. We were given limited time slots to operate during the afternoon hours while the local surgeons would perform their surgeries in the morning hours. Secondly, we did not get the final green light from our donor, SEE International to use the medication that we carried, which was procured under the medical license of Dr Kondrot. Due to COVID-19 and out of abundant precaution, Dr Kondrot could not come with