An Extraordinary Evening in Kenya..

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

New York City

A big thank you to all of those who came out to support MEAK and to those who helped to raise 5800 pounds that day! Non of which would have been possible without Mike Fels, one of MEAK’s most enthusiastic supporters, who worked super hard to arrange and organize the day. We are beyond appreciative for his dedication and passion.

The new MEAK champion who won with a score of 42 points off of a handicap of 6 is Gareth Jones. Jeremy Jukes took 2nd place and Wendy Wigg placed 3rd. The team prize was won by Clive Shaw, Jeremy Jukes, Jamie Holland and John Ledley. The longest drive competition was won by Michael Corcoran and nearest to the pin competition was won by Clive Shaw. A big congratulations to all of the winners and players!

A big thank you to all our sponsors who donated our amazing prizes: Alan Clemence, Marion Colverd at the TU Fund Managers Ltd, Martin Cox, Granville Wise, RAC golf club, Effingham golf club, Cuddington golf club (donated by Dave Smith), Bletchingley golf club, Epsom golf club and Hunstanton golf club (donated by Fraser Douglas & Richard Wigg) and Wendy Wright who held a sponsored Pilates class while we played golf.

If you are interested in getting involved in next years Golf Day, which is booked for June 3rd, 2009, at Bletchingley Golf Club, please contact Mike Fels on mikfels@aol.com

On Monday, June 2nd, MEAK ambassador, Mike Fels, has organized a golf day to help raise money for MEAK at Bletchingley Golf Club in Surrey. The event expects about 70 players to participate.  To get involved, attend the event or if you have any questions please contact Mike on  mikfels@aol.com

MEAK would like to thank Karim Mawji and Richard Wharton for kindly sponsoring the event.

Thank you to all that are participating and coming out to support MEAK. 

Last day of clinic. Arbe had a tricky operation on the second eye but is able to have some vision out of it. Mike and I made our grand finale batch of 300 chapati’s (poor Chukulisa has to continue on alone with the cooking til Friday in our absence feeding our patients). The team finished in the afternoon and Dr Roger put us all to work to complete our analysis reports and charts. 47 of patients were blind in both eyes and now have vision and a total of 130 patients were operated on. We are very pleased with the outcome of this mission. Jamie flew back in tonight and we celebrated. Local Gabbra women came and sang and danced for us. 

Another amazing character we met is this 92 year old man who has 5 wives and 27 children. He smiles constantly, and in return, keeps our team smiling. A young 15 year old girl names Arbe has become a focus of the week. Blind pretty much her whole life, her mother died when she was a baby and her father abandoned her because she could not see. She comes to us from near the border (about a 5 hour journey) where our scout came upon her begging. This morning the team did her first eye and she can see. Arbe is one of those kids with a larger than life personality. The local women have even taken to her and clothed her. Having not had any opportunity for schooling (but clearly yearning for one), Trevor and Mike are passionately brainstorming a way forward for her.

The MP showed up at our camp at 6am having just arrived back in town. After a long meeting, all of the outstanding politics were sorted out, he refunded some of our monies spent, drove into clinic with us and gave a big speech to the community welcoming us and paid for a cow to be slaughtered for the patients. Is very keen to have us there and is hoping to continue an annual program with us as no one touches this area and the need is so great. A very positive boost to our efforts.

30 operations today. Screenings continue. We are getting people from all over the region spanning up to 150k from here. Everyone on our team has fallen into roles here organically to keep the operation running smooth. We are devastated to hear the news about Thomas Sammy and understand after speaking with James that it was kidney failure. Dee and I are a little low today. We do our best to remain focused on  the happiness that comes from watching people see, sometimes for the first time in their lives. It’s a sight and true treasure to witness in person.

We met the local mid wife at clinic this morning. He must be 80 years old and we learned that also works with camels! One story was told to us about how one camel got thorns in its eye and the man sucked them out of its eyeball. Smoother day today - adjusting into our routine. The doctors and nurses have screened over 300 patients already and have operated on about 60. Iain, our director of logistics, continues to drive all over Kalacha daily stocking up on daily food supply needs and errands and transporting the staff, Dee holds court at the clinic troubleshooting, while Mike Fels (one of MEAK’s most appreciated ambassadors who self funds himself on our missions) and I have fallen into chapati making back at camp with Chukulisa (our very favorite camp staff girl who is beyond a treasure). At sunset we all drove to the pile of rocks out in the desert to climb up to the one tiny spot that cell coverage kicks in. A text has come through from London..Thomas Sammy passed away this morning.

The morning started off a little shaky as we negotiated through some politics and logistics (par for the course but non the less tricky). Though progress was made with the various community leaders, with the MP of the area currently out of town (who is aware of our clinic logistics) we were off to a late start. Two lorries carrying 300 people showed up from the Ethiopian border. Crowd control is crazy. The church nearby has been arranged to house our patients during recovery and we have taken on local cooks to assist with the feeding. Have also arranged for our staff back at the camp to prepare Chapati’s and Mandazi’s for 130 people a day. Only 22 operations completed today. We have hired a local team of 5 to assist and train during the clinic and help us as well with follow up after care. Sheer chaos but the mission has officially kicked off.

Our Kalacha team is 12 strong. Tropic Air’s own, Jamie Roberts, has coordinated two caravan’s for us, for the MEAK staff to stay at his bandas in Kalacha, and has been beyond supportive and instrumental in the planning and logistics of this mission. A quick touch down at Nanyuki air strip to meet with our dear friend Helen Douglas Dufresne who runs the Milgis Trust (she has just been made an honorary game warden along with her boyfriend Pete Ilsley of area!) to discuss future eye clinics in her region that are scheduled for the coming year. Kalacha is located in the Chalbi desert just south of the Ethiopian border and is mainly populated by the Gabbra tribe. There is not much here other than sand, mud huts and the gorgeous colors of the Gabbra’s clothing. After a quick negotiation with some locals for a Land Rover for the week, we were right off to the Kalacha Dispensary where we were greeted by atleast 60 patients and went right to work. The lack of electricity and gas was worrisome at first - without it operations can not happen. Thanks to Scott and Reed, two amazing missionaries who work in the area who rigged car batteries up for us, a few hours later the plan was back on track and operations are scheduled to begin tomorrow.

With the heart teams staggered departures back to UK the last few days, everyone was busy wrapping up and making sure all our patients were discharged or recovering well back on the ward and that the nursing turnover was seamless. Sadly, Thomas Sammy is still in ITU and struggling with dialysis and kidney problems. Jess was flown off to do a site survey for a potential eye clinic in Southern Sudan in a town called Rumbek the last two days, which was arranged by MEAK supporter, Magne Albrigtsen. Dee was buzzing around Nairobi from meeting-to-meeting as always. Today, the ever so animated Mike Seton flew Dee, Jess and Trevor down to meet Luca Belpietro, who runs Campi ya Kanzi lodge (near Kilimanjaro between Amboseli and Tsavo) and is a founding trustee of the Maasai WIlderness Conservation Trust. There is great potential for a future eye clinic in this area. In the afternoon back in Nairobi, Justin was discharged from the hospital and we brought him and his father back to the Heron Hotel for the night with us, thanks to the wonderful owners Karim and Tanya. They will fly back to Kilgoris in the morning. Our eye team from Kwale arrives tomorrow to Nairobi and final preparations for our Kalacha eye mission begin.

Today is the last official day of our heart clinic. Our surgical team will fly back to UK tomorrow though our ITU nurses will be on hand for the next few days. The team has set a new record this trip by conducting 222 echo’s in 6-days. And although the Cath lab was down this visit at Kenyatta and we were not able to utilize it as normal, our surgical heart and thoracic team still managed to complete an astonishing 25 operations in just 5-days. The amazing staff at Kenyatta threw us our routine thank you party. Thomas is not doing well. He is suffering from kidney failure and is on dialysis. Our nurses are very nervous to leave him in the state he is in. 

While the heart team continued on at Kenyatta, a few of us flew down to an area called Magati this morning (about a 30 minute flight from Nairobi) to do a quick site survery for a potential eye mission. MEAK’s dear friend, Mike Seaton, who owns East African Air Charters, arranged for this trip and has been eager to get us down there for some time. Back at the hospital, Dee and I were pleased to learn that the 4 Maasai’s with suspected thoracic problems we found on our day trip to the Shompole area the previous week, came up to Kenyatta to be looked at. Our thoracic case scheduled for surgery today sadly died moments before she was brought into theatre. MEAK doctors discussed Margeret’s situation and the best way forward as complications from her surgery have become more apparent. Tim Mead, the amazing doctor up at Kijabe, who has looked at her back problem in the past will take on that surgery once her heart problems are on track. Clinic continues to buzz even on our last day, and our theatre team has once again completed 3 open hearts.

Dee and spent the morning at Wilson Airport. Meetings with our various amazing airline partners who do so much for MEAK arranging flights for our patients when we need them and for our missions all around the country. Our dear friends at SafariLink, who have been esecially amazing with logisitcs for Justin, will once again fly him and his father back home following his discharge from Kenyatta. Sarova Hotels, who sponsored our Taita eye mission came into theatre today along with The Nation Newspaper to watch an open heart operation. Our thoracic surgeon had another big case today. She pulled out a tumor the size of a football from a woman’s lung. Our heart team had a big scare during our last operation today. The bypass machine went into failure during surgery and our beyond talented perfusionist, along with the team, showed their true level of skill as they worked together under extreme stress and pulled the patient through. We will need to bring a new machine with us next trip.

Justin did well through the night and was released onto the ward in less than a day. Thomas is still holding on but it is a very sensitive situation. We spotted a beautiful young 10-year old girl named Margeret Nyawira hanging around the ward this morning. She has very bad kyphoscoliosis in her back and just received a heart operation the week before we arrived. Our team has our eye on her because she will need a follow up heart repair before they can think about operating on her back. Another big day, 3 surgeries and over 60 screened..