Healing and Hope

Healing the Children is privileged to support medical education and provide surgical services at Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy.  

Together, we hope to continue improving health care for the people of Vietnam.

Sunrise on the Mekong Delta

A special thank you from Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy to Healing the Children.

Thank you for sharing our program with us - we hope this blog has given you a better understanding of Vietnam and the work of Healing the Children.   Warm regards, Jennifer Rinaldi, Team Administrator.  For more information or to support HTC, please visit www.htcorwwa.org.

This concludes our blog for the 2012 November Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy Education Exchange.

Teaching CPR at Can Tho Medical University

Team member Dr. Mali de Silva, London, teaches infant and adult CPR to enthusiastic medical students.

Inside the Operating Room

Dr. Geoff Yule (seated, right) teaches Can Tho Surgeon (seated), with translation assistance by team member Loi Van Nguyen (standing), Seattle database administrator.  Dr Yule is removing a second thumb on this child's hand.

Hospice and Mental Health Education

Team member Cyrus Appell, Seattle medical consultant is leading workshops again this year on Hospice and Palliative Care - a relatively new concept here.  There is tremendous interest at the Can Tho Medical University in learning about Hospice Care, as well as Mental Health concepts.  Cyrus (standing), together with Ann Heath, RN-Group Health Home Health & Hospice (left of Cyrus,), Helen Sikov, Director of Washington Center for Reconstructive Rehab (left of Helen), and Seattle Psychologist Dr. Peter Hunsberger are providing extensive lectures, workshops, and materials for Can Tho Medical University faculty and students.  400+ medical students are expected at Friday's lecture on Hospice Care.

Team members Tom Linde, Therapist, and Peter Hunsberger, Psychologist  provide teaching at Can Tho Psychiatric Hospital, shown here conducting a role paying exercise.  Patients were also seen with local health care providers.

Teaching English; Medical Library Workshops

A note from Tom Linde, pyschologist and Group Health mental health faculty: "The  experience of the day was meeting 60 medical students at the Can Tho Medical University to give them some practice in English. My own subgroup of 8 were all 19 years old. Smart, curious, animated and adorable, every one. The large group laughed and applauded in learning that Mary and I were married, and my small group later asked me to tell our "love story". We also talked about hobbies, school, medicine and all sorts of other topics. I was struck by how hardworking these kids are, in a life which looks pretty austere - living in boarding houses most of them, in tiny shared rooms, taking the bus to visit home on Sundays. They study all the time. Asked about hobbies, they might listen to music once in a while. At the end of our discussion we took photos. Every one wanted pictures of virtually every combination on all their cameras, and were especially eager to have one-to-one shots, when they'd more or less snuggle up next to us and grin like it was the happiest experience they'd had in some time. It was charming, poignant and memorable. Several wanted me to learn one Vietnamese phrase: "You will be in my heart forever". What started out as a simple language exchange turned into something more rich than I could have imagined."

English language skills are required for medical university students.  Several of our team members have enjoyed the opportunity to teach English classes throughout the week.  Jennifer Rinaldi, Healing the Children board member and Team Administrator, with a terrific class.

Ann Glusker, Medical Librarian with Seattle Group Health, provides workshops to Can Tho Medical faculty and students on Medical research, technology, and medical library related topics.  "I am working with the staff of the medical library. The medical library at Can Tho Univ has existed for about three years, and has 8 staff 

members.  Several of them are new librarians, and very excited to be at the library.  In addition to the library staff, my talks were attended by people from the IT department and from basic sciences, as well as several medical students."

Teaching nerve block anesthesia using ultrasound --  Team member Dr. Naveen Murali, Evalina Children's Hospital, London (seated), assisted by team member Dr. Mali de Silva (far left), King's College Hospital, London.

Team members Jane Holley and Sally-Anne McNae, both registered nurses with Evelina Childrens Hospital, London, assist a young patient in post-surgery recovery.

New splint provides workable thumb

Team member Nancy Chee, Hand Therapist from San Francisco, constructs a custom-made splint for a beautiful young girl giving her an opposable thumb.   

A beautiful reunion!

Our team member Dr. Geoff Yule of Seattle was greeted warmly by Khang, a young man who Dr. Yule operated on last year, removing a second thumb on his left hand.  We had the privilege of serving Khang again this year, surgically removing the second thumb from his other hand.  All of the surgeries we conduct are teaching surgeries for our local colleagues from Can Tho Medical Univ.

Sunday:  Our ENT and Hand Surgery teams and Anethesiologists spend the day screening patients at Can Tho Hospital.  We work side by side with medical staff and students from the university in a teaching and collaborative capacity.  The university has prescreened patients, and now we will screen and select candidates for surgery. Hand surgeries include removal of extra digits, separating digits, carpal tunnel release, injury repair.  The hardest part of the day is telling an anxious and hopeful mom that we cannot help her child.

Our team - in Can Tho to begin our work at Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy in the Mekong Delta.

Our team spent a great overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.  We toured the HCMC museum, and enjoyed the Ben Thanh market where you can buy just about anything!  HCMC is full of old and new, and lots and lots of motorbikes!  

Our HTC team members from the Seattle area left Seatc at 2am, and arrived in Taipai, Taiwan 12 hours later.  The Taipei airport is very modern with beautiful art displays, orchid gardens and lots of shops!  We will soon be on our way to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  Several of our team members have already arrived in HCMC from London.