Apr 2, 2009
Mar 26, 2009
Tweeting on Twitter
No idea what my blog post title means? Then skim through this and check out my friend Kelly's flirtation with tweeting. Like her, I follow certain people on Twitter. It's fun! But I'm not yet convinced it's for me. Do I really have anything that interesting and pithy to say to the world several times a day? As I recall, this is actually the way I felt about Facebook. Until I joined last year and suddenly found myself planted in front of my laptop at all hours of the day and night, reading long-ago friends' status updates and their friends' friends wall posts and their friends' friends' 25 random thoughts. I never knew I had so much free time...
Mar 19, 2009
Mar 12, 2009
Some things are universal
A boy....a girl....a boy looking at a girl. I saw this while we drove from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Bhairab, about three hours away (but only 40-50 miles or so).
Mar 10, 2009
Zia International Airport, Dhaka
We arrived in Dhaka unsure if our luggage would arrive, too. We flew from NY to Dubai to Dhaka, but our flight out of NY was delayed four hours and we barely made our connection to Dhaka.
You won't believe why we sat on the tarmac at JFK from 11pm to 3am. We were delayed because the personal entertainment systems wouldn't work. Really.
We flew Emirates Air, which is well-known for its wide selection of in-flight movies, TV shows and video games. Some parents take Emirates specifically because kids are so fully entertained on flights. And so, though the pilot asked for permission from his higher-ups to just take off already, we waited and waited for engineers to try and repair the systems.
Fast forward about 24 hours to Dhaka. We waited and waited for any glimpse of the dozen yellow-topped crates packed with medical supplies for Project Bangladesh. Sharon kept peeking behind rubber curtains to the unloading area, where soldiers stood guard. We worried all the crates had been left behind in Dubai. Then what would everyone do at surgery in the morning?
Nearly an hour passed before everything arrived. Meanwhile, I wandered around the airport taking pictures. Here's some of what I saw.
You won't believe why we sat on the tarmac at JFK from 11pm to 3am. We were delayed because the personal entertainment systems wouldn't work. Really.
We flew Emirates Air, which is well-known for its wide selection of in-flight movies, TV shows and video games. Some parents take Emirates specifically because kids are so fully entertained on flights. And so, though the pilot asked for permission from his higher-ups to just take off already, we waited and waited for engineers to try and repair the systems.
Fast forward about 24 hours to Dhaka. We waited and waited for any glimpse of the dozen yellow-topped crates packed with medical supplies for Project Bangladesh. Sharon kept peeking behind rubber curtains to the unloading area, where soldiers stood guard. We worried all the crates had been left behind in Dubai. Then what would everyone do at surgery in the morning?
Nearly an hour passed before everything arrived. Meanwhile, I wandered around the airport taking pictures. Here's some of what I saw.
Mar 8, 2009
Project Bangladesh: Around Al-Shafa Hospital
A crowd of hospital personnel, patients and their families turned out to bid goodbye to the Project Bangladesh team. Most everyone at the hospital was incredibly kind and eager to have their pictures taken with us. 
A simple, hand-written sign denotes "Operating Room #1."
Non-patients were supposed to be kept out of the operating areas by this gate, but people constantly walked in and out anyway.
Emma Tribble, surgical technician, in the operating room. Note the time: 7:20 pm. Twelve-hour days were the norm.
Medical supplies stuffed into cubby holes - not something you would see in a U.S. hospital.
The post-operation recovery area. No private rooms here.
Families of patients camp out in a field next to the hospital, which is in the background of this photograph. The little tents are made of bamboo and plastic.
The inside of one of the tents where patients' families stay.
Kids camping out next to the hospital mobbed me after I took a group photograph. They couldn't wait to see their pictures on my little LCD screen.
Mar 5, 2009
Project Bangladesh: Pre-surgery moment
I'm still editing through pictures, trying to decide how to sequence the next picture story from my trip with Project Bangladesh. Until the story's ready, here's one frame to tide you over: Dr. Liz O'Neil (right) looks into the pre-surgery waiting room on the first morning at Al-Shafa General Hospital in Bhairab, Bangladesh. Potential patients were screened weeks in advance by Dr. Ajmal Sobhan, a Bangladeshi who spent much of his medical career in the United States and helped found Project Bangladesh 20 years ago.
Mar 4, 2009
Project Bangladesh: Rita
In the United States, we sometimes take for granted that we have access to a a great healthcare system. True, we don't all have insurance. (I've been without health insurance, so I know what this is like firsthand). True, healthcare can be very expensive. But healthcare is there when and if we really, really need it. That's not always so in other countries.
Rita, 26, and the mother of three children, has lived with two goiters since she was young. The lumps didn't bother her when she was a child, but since she had her own children, the goiters seem to have grown larger. When she heard Americans were coming to this hospital in Bhairab, Bangladesh, she thought they might be able to help her.
"I'm afraid it might choke me or cause me to lose my life," she said of her goiters. "I have to listen to all kinds of abuse because people make fun of me. I'm hurt inside and I feel very bad."
Rita's husband clung close to her. You could see the love and concern in his eyes as Dr. Ajmal Sobhan and I interviewed Rita just minutes before her operation. Rita's husband was on the verge of tears when Dr. Mark Pomeranz, the anaesthesiologist, and Kathleen App, the nurse, escorted Rita from the bare, yellow waiting room into the operating room. No wheelchairs or gurneys here. Patients walked, hobbled, or sometimes got carried on stretchers, even up stairs and right after surgery.
Inside the operating room, Mark put Rita under. Mark found it didn't take much to knock out Rita and other patients. He surmised that unlike Americans, most of the Bangladeshi patients had never taken drugs, not even aspirin or ibuprofen.
As Mark worked his magic, someone turned on the two wall-mounted fans. A window was cracked slightly open just a couple feet away from a tray of surgical instruments. Sharon Greene-Golden, a certified sterile technician, carried instruments in and out of the OR all through the surgery. In fact, doctors, nurses, surgical technicians and hospital personnel constantly walked in and out of the OR as if they were in their best friend's home. Needless to say, the Americans had to adjust their sterilization expectations lower.
Dr. Liz O'Neil performed surgery for four hours. Rita's two goiters weighed a total of one pound. According to the medical professionals I was with, you rarely see goiters of this size in the United States. Americans would have had this problem diagnosed earlier and taken care of immediately.
Fortunately, Rita will be fine and goiter-free. I saw her and her husband and son a few times after surgery. She looked like she was in a bit of pain but managed to smile once or twice. It was beautiful to see!
(Warning: There's a slightly graphic photograph below)
Rita, 26, and the mother of three children, has lived with two goiters since she was young. The lumps didn't bother her when she was a child, but since she had her own children, the goiters seem to have grown larger. When she heard Americans were coming to this hospital in Bhairab, Bangladesh, she thought they might be able to help her.
"I'm afraid it might choke me or cause me to lose my life," she said of her goiters. "I have to listen to all kinds of abuse because people make fun of me. I'm hurt inside and I feel very bad."
Rita's husband clung close to her. You could see the love and concern in his eyes as Dr. Ajmal Sobhan and I interviewed Rita just minutes before her operation. Rita's husband was on the verge of tears when Dr. Mark Pomeranz, the anaesthesiologist, and Kathleen App, the nurse, escorted Rita from the bare, yellow waiting room into the operating room. No wheelchairs or gurneys here. Patients walked, hobbled, or sometimes got carried on stretchers, even up stairs and right after surgery.
Inside the operating room, Mark put Rita under. Mark found it didn't take much to knock out Rita and other patients. He surmised that unlike Americans, most of the Bangladeshi patients had never taken drugs, not even aspirin or ibuprofen.
As Mark worked his magic, someone turned on the two wall-mounted fans. A window was cracked slightly open just a couple feet away from a tray of surgical instruments. Sharon Greene-Golden, a certified sterile technician, carried instruments in and out of the OR all through the surgery. In fact, doctors, nurses, surgical technicians and hospital personnel constantly walked in and out of the OR as if they were in their best friend's home. Needless to say, the Americans had to adjust their sterilization expectations lower.
Dr. Liz O'Neil performed surgery for four hours. Rita's two goiters weighed a total of one pound. According to the medical professionals I was with, you rarely see goiters of this size in the United States. Americans would have had this problem diagnosed earlier and taken care of immediately.
Fortunately, Rita will be fine and goiter-free. I saw her and her husband and son a few times after surgery. She looked like she was in a bit of pain but managed to smile once or twice. It was beautiful to see!
(Warning: There's a slightly graphic photograph below)
Feb 28, 2009
Mike & Rani's wedding
And now a short intermission from the Project Bangladesh pictures.
The day before I left for Bangladesh, I was a bridesmaid in Mike and Rani's wedding. It was a crazy day of dress shopping (one bridesmaid had a "wardrobe malfunction" the night before the ceremony), hair do-ing, laughing, dancing and sharing. May the lovely couple be happy in their marriage!
The day before I left for Bangladesh, I was a bridesmaid in Mike and Rani's wedding. It was a crazy day of dress shopping (one bridesmaid had a "wardrobe malfunction" the night before the ceremony), hair do-ing, laughing, dancing and sharing. May the lovely couple be happy in their marriage!
Feb 26, 2009
Surgery in Bangladesh
Before traveling to Bhairab, I'd never witnessed even one surgery. Now I've seen about two dozen. It was incredible! I learned so much about anatomy and the body's resilience. The medical volunteers were patient in explaining what they were doing and how they were adapting their techniques to the available resources. Everyone told me I have to visit an American operating room so I can compare what everyone did in Bhairab to what is modus operandi in the US. For instance, in the US, hospitals use sterile surgery drapes to cover the patient during an operation; afterward the drapes go in the trash bin. In Bhairab, the drapes were made of cloth, washed by hand and reused again and again. (Warning: one of the pictures below is slightly graphic.)
Feb 25, 2009
Project Bangladesh
I just returned from an amazing trip to Bangladesh, where I photographed for a medical mission dedicated to bringing healthcare to the country's poor. Over five days in Bhairab, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Dhaka, medical volunteers with Project Bangladesh performed 54 surgeries ranging from uterine prolapse cases to simple lumps and bumps. I'm amazed at what the team accomplished. The surgeons, nurses and technicians lacked many of the basic resources available in American hospitals: sterile operating rooms, reliable oxygen supplies, an abundance of instruments. Still, they pulled together and improvised in many cases. The best part was the gratitude on patients' and families' faces post-surgery.
I'm still pretty jetlagged and need to sleep, so I'll write more and post more photographs later.
I'm still pretty jetlagged and need to sleep, so I'll write more and post more photographs later.
Feb 12, 2009
Belated birthday to Bokju
Bokju's birthday was last month and I totally missed it! So here are two photographs from the last time we met, back in October. We visited a modern art museum in Seoul (below) and spent some time on the deck, looking out at the sunset (above). Happy belated birthday, Bokju!
Feb 2, 2009
Super Bowl
Ouch!
Our halftime show: Josh (left) and Pablo (right) blow out their birthday candles. I knew it was Josh's birthday but didn't even know Pablo before yesterday. Luckily, I had already baked two cakes, you know--just in case!
Happy and unhappy fans.
Jan 31, 2009
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