Working towards Health Equity and Access in Rural Nepal
Posted in Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Feb 19th, 2011
Posted by Duncan Maru Note: Please be advised of potentially graphic medical content. The delivery room at Bayalpata Hospital was dimly lit. The walls, a pale yellow; the floor, the kind of brown cement that, though freshly cleaned by our health aide Chandrika didi, could never look clean. On the delivery table was a blue [...]
Posted in Patient Stories on Feb 14th, 2011
Posted by Duncan Maru Children, in their infinite capacity to explore the world, occasionally get small objects stuck in various orifices in their bodies. In Achham, such simple problems can lead to permanent morbidities such as deafness or even infection and death. At Bayalpata Hospital, extracting objects can be quite challenging. I spoke recently with [...]
Posted in News, Patient Stories on Jan 24th, 2011
Posted by Duncan Maru A brave little four-year-old girl with a pink hairband twisted on the crown of her head, pink and purple polka-dotted shirt, and purple socks is sitting in the procedure room. She had fallen earlier that day while playing and hurt her right arm. She has a small abrasion over her cheek [...]
Posted in News, Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Nov 29th, 2010
Posted by Bibhav Acharya Dr. Bikash Gauchan and Dr. Amir Bista, Nyaya’s two physicians, were running out of options for a very sick 17 year old girl from a remote village in Achham. She had been to several hospitals in the region and had conflicting lab results and no clear diagnosis. Despite our best efforts, [...]
Posted in Mortality Reviews, Patient Stories on Aug 22nd, 2010
Posted by Duncan Maru, MD, PHD We are unlikely to find the ultimate cause of death for two young male siblings who died at Bayalpata Hospital after a toxin ingestion. In our mortality review, the key point of reflection is less on our clinical operations, as they have been recently, and more on the general [...]
Posted in Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Aug 9th, 2010
Posted by Duncan Maru, MD, PHD At Bayalpata Hospital, we face clinical questions that our so harsh, so uncomfortable, that they challenge our very humanity as healthcare providers. The clinical challenge in this morbidity and mortality review is precisely one such instance: What is the appropriate management when a pregnant woman comes in from a [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management, Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Aug 6th, 2010
Posted by Ryan Schwarz Recently, Nyaya’s staff at Bayalpata Hospital received a 7 year-old boy who had fallen and sustained significant head injuries. There was concern that he had fractured his skull and had increased pressure inside his skull cavity – a life-threatening condition. He was immediately transferred to Seti Zonal Hospital in Nyaya’s ambulance [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management, News, Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Aug 2nd, 2010
Posted by Astha Ramaiya Wendy Glauser, a journalist from Toronto, recently visited Nyaya’soperations in Achham and wrote about the Safe Motherhood Incentive Program and birthing practices in Nepal. You can read her piece in the Canadian Medical Association Journal which can be accessed here. Tweet This Post
Posted in Logistics and Management, Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Jul 20th, 2010
Posted by Duncan Maru, MD, PHD In Achham, Nyaya Health’s work seems to be a constant battle against death. After all, we are confronting some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world. As we have discussed on this blog in our mortality reviews, we so often fall short of our goal. [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management, Mortality Reviews, Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Jul 15th, 2010
Posted by Duncan Maru, MD, PHD So often in our work we are confronted by our own inadequacies as a young global health organization — at fundraising, recruiting volunteers, following through on commitments, developing protocols, getting technologies out to Achham. These are felt every moment of every day when we offer less than the highest [...]
Posted in Mortality Reviews, Patient Stories on Jun 7th, 2010
Posted by Duncan Maru, MD, PHD All too often in our work, we are confronted by deaths of young people that are devastating by their impact on families and communities and by the fact of their being so preventable. The death of this young pregnant woman and her child, described below in the mortality report [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management, Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Jun 1st, 2010
This is part of a series of guest contributions by authors working for health justice in South Asia. We are pleased to support their work, and encourage our readers to think critically about the connection between our work and theirs. Mental health has historically been neglected both in the developed and developing world. In Nyaya’s [...]
Posted in News, Patient Stories, Reports, Social Justice and Health on May 16th, 2010
Posted by Ryan Schwarz Nepali film-maker Subina Shrestha has produced a new documentary on birthing practices in western Nepal and their effect on women’s health. The production was recently aired in an episode of WITNESS, an Al Jazeera television production. Shrestha explores why Nepal has among the highest rates of maternal mortality in South Asia; [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management, Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Apr 8th, 2010
Posted by Astha Ramaiya One of the most entrenched forms of gender inequality in Achham is that of illiteracy. The literacy rate amongst young girls aged six to fifteen is only 16% compared to 54% among boys of the same age group. Adult literacy among women in Achham is an appalling 7% compared to 48% [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management, Patient Stories, Social Justice and Health on Mar 26th, 2010
Posted by Ranju Sharma In early January, The Kathmandu Post reported the death of a woman in the district of Achham during her stay in a “Chhaupadi goth.” She was found dead in the shed on the fifth day of her stay; her eight-month-old son, who stayed with her, was found unconscious. Two weeks before [...]