Ok, so i spent time touring Mulago Hospital in Uganda with Dr. Tazelaar.. Actually, he was doing a pathology seminar and one of the pathology residents took me on a tour of this behemoth of a hospital sprawled out over several hills in Kampala.
Once a mighty teaching hospital, the largest in all of east africa, Mulago was mortally wounded during the violent and corrupt reign of Idi Amin and has never recovered. It is like walking into the past about 30 years..or more.
My first thoughts upon entering the casualty ward (emergency room) was 'this is what Hell is like' and for the rest of day, as I traveled through the hospital, even into the surgery theatres, aids units, burn units, cancer units and maternity floor, it only became more hellish and, ultimately almost surreal. I have never felt such a darkness, a almost physical weight of despair, apathy, and death permeating every cracked and tumbling wall, stained and filthy concrete floor, every packed corner filled with families living right in the hospital.. Infants, children, adolescents, adults, elderly.. all coming to a hospital.. a place of hope... to find there is very little.
I think I went into a state of shock midway, because looking back at the things that I saw, I cannot believe that I didn't faint dead away, or run out screaming into the sunlight. But I stayed, and saw.. and now cannot get the images out of my head - they are branded into my very self.
Its been exactly three months since I was there.. I haven't been able to process it enough to write about it.. but I have to..Its like a burning, ripping ache that won't go away.. Maybe this is where I am supposed to be...Maybe this is where I am supposed to work
Anyway, I have posted a couple of articles and a couple of photos, (I was not allowed to take photos, but have found some through a couple of physicians from the UK who spent six weeks working in the hospital)
there is nothing pretty about what I will say, there are extremely graphic photos, almost too much to bear..emotionally and physically wrenching stories, nothing redeeming... nothing that will change the fact that this is literally a hell on earth. but maybe putting it out there will help to raise a bit of awareness. whew.. big breath...
Once a mighty teaching hospital, the largest in all of east africa, Mulago was mortally wounded during the violent and corrupt reign of Idi Amin and has never recovered. It is like walking into the past about 30 years..or more.
My first thoughts upon entering the casualty ward (emergency room) was 'this is what Hell is like' and for the rest of day, as I traveled through the hospital, even into the surgery theatres, aids units, burn units, cancer units and maternity floor, it only became more hellish and, ultimately almost surreal. I have never felt such a darkness, a almost physical weight of despair, apathy, and death permeating every cracked and tumbling wall, stained and filthy concrete floor, every packed corner filled with families living right in the hospital.. Infants, children, adolescents, adults, elderly.. all coming to a hospital.. a place of hope... to find there is very little.
I think I went into a state of shock midway, because looking back at the things that I saw, I cannot believe that I didn't faint dead away, or run out screaming into the sunlight. But I stayed, and saw.. and now cannot get the images out of my head - they are branded into my very self.
Its been exactly three months since I was there.. I haven't been able to process it enough to write about it.. but I have to..Its like a burning, ripping ache that won't go away.. Maybe this is where I am supposed to be...Maybe this is where I am supposed to work
Anyway, I have posted a couple of articles and a couple of photos, (I was not allowed to take photos, but have found some through a couple of physicians from the UK who spent six weeks working in the hospital)
there is nothing pretty about what I will say, there are extremely graphic photos, almost too much to bear..emotionally and physically wrenching stories, nothing redeeming... nothing that will change the fact that this is literally a hell on earth. but maybe putting it out there will help to raise a bit of awareness. whew.. big breath...
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