2006
In mid-February I traveled back to India, to Vellore, to finish a project I had started the year before. My friend Sara Bhattarcharji had added a labor and delivery wing to her hospital, and I had promised to help her get it organized and running. In 2005 I had spent a month training the nurses and doctors, putting together protocols, and creating chart forms. I'd had a chance to work in the outpatient antepartum clinic, but we hadn't done any deliveries. Since then, there had been laboring patients, deliveries and babies. I was coming back to evaluate the program, and tweak it if necessary.
I found that there had been a large turnover of nurses, so I did a good bit of education. We reevaluated our forms, and made modifications, as well as creating an OB register of births. I spent time in antenatal clinic, stressing the importance of accurate gestational dating, and taught the staff how to use the two Dopplers that my boss, Dr. Bayram, had donated to them. I also did a chart review, and found a high rate of routine episiotomy; Sara and I made an effort to stamp out this practice.
My OB nursing staff at LCECU
And I spent time with Dr. Kiruba and the other staff learning how to use the new ultrasound machine that Sara had gotten donated. And we had several pysanka making sessions again this year, with various staff and volunteers.
It was not all work , though, and I got to spend time visiting with friends. I spent most of my stay with Jiji and Prasad Mathews, who were kind enough to take me in and feed me......again! Prasad and I talked politics, and Jiji taught me more Indian recipes. I had a chance to get better acquainted with Avinash, now aged ten, and his baby brother Tarun, almost three. Sadly, Jiji's father, who'd been ill for several years, passed away in February. He and Jiji's mother had been staying in Vellore and getting care at CMCH at the time. During his last days we had many visitors coming to visit and pray with the family. The funeral was held in Madras, where I got to meet both of Jiji's sisters, Rupa and Binu, from Delhi and Connecticut respectively.
I spent some time with Prasad's family, too; his brother and family came from the US to visit, and we went to Madras to see them and Prasad's parents. I spent time with Dr. Daisy at CHAD and lunched with her, and spent a pleasant evening by the pool with Prasad's medicine department. And I made a new friend, Ingrid Friberg, a graduate student from Johns Hopkins working at the LCECU. Check my blog for more about my India trip, including lots more pictures and a lot more text.
Prasad, Tarun, Jiji and Avinash Mathews
Main 2006 Page
India
