Conor has been networking with many organizations in Port au Prince, and has developed a contact with Capt. Coulter of the 82nd Airborne.  Capt. Coulter and his men have been checking on the camps and orphanages, assessing needs and putting people in contact with others who can help them out with supplies and support.  We went with him last week to visit the Missionaries of Charity Home for Children (Mother Teresa's) to see some of the children. As I wrote earlier, we brought a malnourished one year-old girl to our hospital for treatment and will be checking in with the Sisters on a regular basis for more children who need care.

Capt. Coulter expressed an interest in his medics learning how to assess children for malnutrition so we arranged a time that I could go and show them how.  They are not planning on doing organized, large-scale work, but desired the ability to make a quick assessment in the field if they had the need.  I visited the men at their camp in Port au Prince yesterday and showed them how to check for bilateral edema, a sign of very serious malnutrition that needs to be addressed urgently.  I also showed them a simple procedure that can be used on children between 6 mos. and 5 years of age.  It involves using a special band to measure the circumference of the arm mid-way between the shoulder and elbow, called Mid-Upper Arm Circumference, or MUAC.

MUAC is a pretty simple measure, but sometimes is difficult to do because the child is scared, thinking that they are going to get a needle.  The guys joked that they'd have no problem, there are grown soldiers who give them a hard time. They picked it up easily, demonstrated it back, and said they were happy to know how to do it.  I provided them with the list of centers in PaP that are treating severe malnutrition and also told them they could refer cases to us.

[0 comments]

Submit a comment:

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.