St. Albert's Patients
The hospital admits about 5,000 patients yearly. Patients come from the surrounding villages on the escarpment and from the arid Zambezi Valley and neighboring Mozambique. Cases include complicated malarias (e.g., cerebral malaria and malaria-related kidney and other organ failure), upper respiratory infections, tuberculosis, pneumonia, burns, and work-related injuries (e.g., being gored by oxen while farming, children falling from trees while harvesting fruit).
About 2,600 babies are delivered there yearly. Obstructed labor and consequent vaginal fistulas are a serious problem. The hospital’s vaccination clinic provides childhood immunizations for thousands of children annually.
The doctors treat some 40,000 outpatients yearly. Cases include upper respiratory infections, malaria, injuries, skin diseases, diarrheal conditions, schistosomiasis, and serious eye conditions.
HIV infection and AIDS-related illnesses bring many people to the hospital with pneumonia, fever, and skin problems. St. Albert’s provides antiretroviral therapy for over 300 people, which is only a fraction of those who need this treatment.
The patients below are example of the people who come to St. Albert’s for care.
Many people come to the hospital for the treatment of AIDS-related illnesses. This young man has folliculitis, an infection of the hair follicles often seen in people with AIDS. The sores here range from raw to dried and healed.
This 8-year-old boy had a highly aggressive case of shingles on his waist. Shingles is caused by the chicken-pox virus, Herpes zoster, and it can be a sign of AIDS when it occurs in a child or young person. The child also had dental cavities and swollen lymph nodes, also signs of AIDS.
This young man developed shingles as a result of an HIV infection. He tried to treat the condition himself using a traditional remedy, and it destroyed the skin on his chest, side, and arm. Upon his arrival at the hospital, nurses drained two liters of pus from the affected area. They treated him three times a day with intravenous antibiotics. About 20 percent of adults in Zimbabwe are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Antiretroviral drug clinic. Antiretroviral drugs are drugs designed to control HIV infection. St. Albert’s provides antiretroviral therapy to more than 310 infected people, including more than a dozen children. Here, Dr. Julia Musariri talks with people coming to the clinic. The hospital expected more than 80 people to arrive to refill their antiretroviral therapy. UNAIDS estimated in 2006 that 20 percent of Zimbabweans aged 15-49 are infected with HIV. About 1,700,000 Zimbabweans are thought to be HIV-infected. (See www.unaids.org)
Each person returning for antiretroviral therapy meets with hospital nurses who review the record the patient keeps in a small notebook about his or her daily use of the drugs. The medication combines three antiretroviral drugs into one tablet, which must be taken twice daily. Each person is given a two-month supply.
Woman, age 23, with a tumor of the jaw. She walked to the barefoot, her infant tied to her back. X-rays taken at St. Albert's indicated the doctors could not treat the condition, and they referred the young woman to a maxillofacial specialist in Harare. The treatment will likely be prohibitively expensive, however, even if a specialist and equipment and supplies are available. The woman first thought she had a dental abscess and saw a traditional healer. Cuts visible near the base of her swelling indicate where the healer had tried to drain the swelling. She wears an amulet of red cloth or leather from the healer around her neck.
A neighbor accused this 8-year-old boy of stealing fish from him. As punishment, he put the child’s hands in boiling water. The boy was brought to the hospital with first- and second-degree burns that should heal, although the child could lose some movement of his fingers if the skin tightens as it heals, though exercises can prevent this.
This 31-yr-old man had an epileptic seizure in the kitchen hut at dinner, and his hand dropped into the open fire. He came to hospital the following morning from Muzerabani in the valley. The burn exposed the bones of his fingers. Dr. Neela managed to save the first carpel so that he might regain the ability to hold objects.
Dr. Neela and Simba, age 3. In Dec. 2000, Simba and his brother Tonderai, age 5, were tied to pole in their hut by their step-father to keep them from asking neighbors for food. After three days, relatives found them and brought them to St. Albert’s. Tonderai had been tied by the thigh, and recovered with no permanent physical injury. Simba had been tied by his forearm, which Neela had to amputate above the elbow. For more about Simba and Tonderai, see “Letters from Elizabeth” for Feb. 27, 2001; April 30, 2001 and May 13, 2005.
Dr. Neela Naha with Simba. (For more about Simba and his brother Tonderai, see “Letters from Elizabeth” for Feb. 27, 2001; April 30, 2001 and May 13, 2005.)
