My Daily Naan: Universal Health Care Redefined

Let me preface this post by saying that this is yet another example of where my words and the pictures I will share can tell only a fraction of the story. My ability to communicate what I want is limited. Oh how I wish each of you could come stay with me for a month so I could show you firsthand what my words in this blog cannot fully express. I am specific about the issues facing women in South Asia so all men be forewarned. I hope that somehow this post moves you to look past your own situation to see how you can help those in need all around you.

Most of you know that 2 years ago, I hoped to have the opportunity to use my nursing skills while I lived and worked overseas. Father answered beyond my wildest imagination, and from the first month I began working through a local NGO doing health checks in local villages, teaching basic health lessons at schools and to young women in villages, and working at mass medical camps. (Oh yeah, and there was that brief stint as a village midwife. Yikes! For more on that insane time, please see the post entitled Once, Twice, Three Times A Baby.) Because of my background as a nurse, I have had the awesome privilege of meeting, talking with, and ultimately trying to help people from all different walks of life with their physical needs. I have been there when a baby cried for the first time, and I witnessed an old man's family gathering for what were sure to be his last days. The sickness and suffering I have encountered goes beyong my ability to describe. My experiences helping people here has changed the way I view health care forever.

First, let me tell you that nothing makes me a faster friend than people finding out that I'm a nurse. As soon as people find out, they begin running down their list of ailments. Most people are anxious for the chance to tell their symptoms to someone who might be able to help. I think the thing that strikes me the most about this constant occurrence is that people are always so sure that I will be able to help them. And of course I so desperately want to help them, but I have had to learn to say "I don't know" when something is beyond my scope. Their complaints can range from anything as simple as a cold and cough to as serious as a child who stopped growing and can't walk.

People in the village have little access to quality, reliable health care. The reasons for this are multi-dimensional and certainly go beyond the scope of my little blog. I do want to try and explain what so many people here are up against. (Notice that I did not say everybody. For those who can afford it and are educated enough to seek it out, there is quality health care available in the country. I had my gallbladder removed here, and I didn't have a single problem. From start to finish, the whole ordeal cost me less that 1,000 USD!!! Can you believe it?!! But I digress, the soaring cost of health care in the U.S. is not the focus of this post.)

One of the most obvious barriers to care is the cost. To me, the cost of my surgery was a steal, but most village people would be hard pressed to come up with that kind of money. But honestly, despite the overwhelming poverty people live in, I do not think the price of health care is the biggest barrier to people receiving help. There are government hospitals that provide services relatively free of cost. They are not completely free as the patient is still responsible to pay for medicine and some supplies, but the facility and the care is provided free of charge. It should go without saying that the care one receives at a free government hospital is not five-star. But even these facilities are not the easiest to access for people living in mountain villages. Life in the mountain village is often confined to a small geographic region, and travelling out for medical services is no easy undertaking. This means that in many instances sick people and their family will put off the travel as long as possible even to the detriment of their health. But even geography is not the biggest barrier to health care. However both poverty and isolation contribute to what I think is the biggest barrier - lack of education.

After spending 2 years here, I am convinced that the biggest problem facing the health of people in my region is the lack of basic medical knowledge. I'm talking about things as simple as handwashing, dehydration, how to care for your baby when she has a fever, and proper nutrition. These are topics most people in America can learn about simply by picking up a magazine or watching Dr. Oz, but are subjects people living in villages are rarely educated on. Education is key not just for preventing acute illnesses like dysentery, but for chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension, education is vital for long term management. Very few people here receive the kind of education needed to properly manage their chronic disease.

Women's health is one area that is constantly breaking my heart. Most village women over the course of their lifetimes, despite the need, will never visit the doctor for a woman's health issue. They are so undereducated on every issue surrounding woman's health that sometimes when talking with them I have no idea even where to start. Some girls do not know things as simple as cramps and lower back pain with one's monthly cycle are not out of the norm. Because they don't know that cramps are normal, and because their moms don't know for sure and thus never educate their daughters, the girls live in fear that there is something seriously wrong with them. These women live with fistulas, pelvic organ prolapses, continual bleeding, recurrent yeast infections, and they do not go to the doctor. Instead they suffer in silence. For women in South Asia there is a lot of shame that goes along with being female, and they are embarassed to mention these things even to me. When a woman is talking to me about her health problems, she normally starts by sharing about a few nonthreatening things like a headache or dizziness. Only after talking with me for 5 or 10 minutes and deciding that I can be trusted will she lean in and quietly whisper about what is really troubling her which is very often a recurrent yeast infection. It is heartbreaking to know how uncomfortable they must be and yet their shame and embarassment keeps them from seeking help. I'm sorry if my being so open about these issues makes some of you uncomfortable, but believe me when I say it is nothing compared to the discomfort these women live with every day.

Fear runs rampant here. I recently saw a young boy in a village with a large growth on the side of his neck. According to his family, the growth had started small over 2 years earlier, but they had never taken him to see a doctor, and now it was twice the size of his neck. The reason his family gave for not going to the hospital at any point over the last few years was based on fear and superstition. The fear is born partly out of what is unknown. So much is unknown to them about doctors, hospitals, and operations. But the other part of the fear comes from what little they have experienced in hospitals and clinics. For example, last month I met a woman and her two sons who had suffered much at the hands of the health system. A few years back the older of the two boys had started to go blind in one eye, from what exactly the mother was not able to articulate to me. She took him to a doctor who charged huge rates which the family could hardly afford and made huge promises of saving the boy's sight. The doctor performed an operation that got botched and both eyes had to be removed as a result of the doctor's poor skill. Now it is a year or so later and the younger boy is showing the same symptoms and is in need of medical attention. The mother is too scared to take him to see any doctor because of what happened with her other son. So you see her fear of hospitals and doctors is not unfounded.

The hope that exists for this woman and her son is that she is fully relying on the Great Physician to heal him. She told me that she will not take him to any doctor but that she is relying only on pr@yer to JC to save her son's sight. I pr@yed with her and her family that night that the Mighty Healer might restore sight. I confess that as a health care professional I am often tempted to rely too much on my own knowledge and on Western medicine, and sometimes I forget that I serve a powerful healer. I try to fix things myself first. But living here I have heard witness of countless healings done in the name of J. In this region of the world He is constantly revealing his glory, power, and mercy through miraculous healings, and people are giving their lives to C as a result. I wonder if the reason we don't see as many miraculous healings in the West is because we would be more likely to attribute it to medicine and science instead of his power and compassion.

So what to do? (People here ask this question rhetorically all the time when faced with problems.) Everywhere I look in the world people are hurting. My heart is breaking for them. I know ultimately what they need the most is the hope of a life in JC. But I also know I cannot look past their suffering. What is my responsibility? As a follower of J, I am to be about my Master's work. He showed love, compassion, and mercy to the sick, dying, oppressed, orphans, lonely, and outcasts. He gave food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. He brought the dead back to life. Best of all, he gave his own life to secure for us an eternity with him unmarred by the decay of this world. And so I try, and I am not perfect, to show that same love and compassion to people. I teach moms how to take better care of their babies. I teach kids at school how to wash their hands in order to hopefully prevent the diarrhea and dehydration that can be so deadly in the heat of summer. I take blood pressures and blood sugars and teach how what we eat plays a role in both. I hand out vitamins to kids who are malnourished. And even though I cannot restore a boy's sight, I pr@y with faith in the name of JC for him to be healed. And while I cannot bring the dead back to life, I share about the One who gave his life so that we can have new life. And I look eagerly forward to that Abiding City where there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more decay. Come LJ.