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Early Detection in the Village Clinics is Saving Lives 13 August 2007. Thuraya thought that her daughter was suffering from a cold and didn’t notice anything unusual about her health. It wasn’t until she visited a clinic run by the Health Workers’ Committees NGO a doctor noticed that Abeer, Thuraya’s 7 year old daughter, was suffering from an irregular heart beat caused by a congenital problem that could be fatal. Abeer was taken by her family to another doctor, who said her heart was normal. The clinic doctor insisted her situation was dangerous, and he referred Abeer for an x-ray in the City of Hebron. The x-ray confirmed that her case was indeed serious. Now a new type of challenge began, as Abeer required a sophisticated type of surgery, not readily available in Palestinian hospitals because of the long strike and lack of facilities. Abeer and her parents managed to go to a hospital near Tel Aviv. In the hospital, Thuraya recalls, “My husband and I stayed near our daughter’s bed for three weeks, and there was no place where we could get some sleep, yet we were comforted by the fact that Abeer’s illness was detected early.” Now, one year after the surgery, the family is sitting in their home in the village of Saeer, near Hebron. When Thuraya recalls what her family went through, she concludes by saying: “I am happy and relieved. The life of my daughter has been saved.” Also in Saeer, Jacqueline is another mother who tells how her son was diagnosed with cancer and was treated early on. Jacqueline had thought everything was normal with her son, as she took him to the clinic to check his weight and to conduct routine blood tests. Initially, the doctor suspected that the little boy had anemia, and since the hospital in Hebron was on strike, he gave Jacqueline an urgent referral letter to a hospital near Bethlehem. There, according to Jacqueline, “I was surprised when the doctors decided to put my son in the hospital,” and they gave her a blood sample and asked her to go to a Hebron hospital. “It turns out my son had leukemia,” she said. Jacqueline fainted in the hospital, “I felt great pain, and I was willing to sell all my belongings, including the family house to have him treated.” Jacqueline spent eight months with her son in the hospital,. In the meantime, the boy was responding well to chemotherapy. After the treatment was completed, Jacqueline described her return home as “difficult,” because she felt like a stranger to her own children after having been away for too long. To help them understand, she told them: “You have to bear with me and be patient.” The good news is that today, the little boy is leading a healthy life with his parents and siblings, and there are no traces of leukemia in his blood. In addition to children, grownups are finding themselves in situations where early detection is saving their lives. Manal is 30 years old, married with two children, and living in the village of Al-Majd near Hebron. Manal describes her life before falling ill by saying: “Every day I would work at home and take care of the children. In the evening we would sit outside and talk to our neighbors; we would cook for next day and collect grapes. I have plants in my garden which I would attend to, and I have chicken and pigeons.” Manal went to see a woman doctor in the Mother-Child Health Care Center, run by the Ministry of Health in the village. Manal was pregnant but the doctor told her there were complications, so Manal was transferred to a hospital in Hebron. Unfortunately, she lost the baby. During the following pregnancy four months afterwards, Manal had a sudden miscarriage, with bleeding and abdominal pain, so she went to the village clinic again. The doctor checked her on the ultrasound and tests revealed that Manal had cancer in the uterus, so she had to be treated immediately. In the days afterwards, Manal went to a hospital in Bethlehem for chemotherapy sessions. According to Manal: “Had I not come to see the doctor, I would have developed cancer, but now I am happy because I was treated completely.” Following the treatment she received, Manal is now leading a normal life,.” Since September 2006, there are 30 clinics in the Hebron area that receive help, as part of the Emergency Medical Assistance Project to Sustain Health Care Services in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Small village clinics such as the one in Saeer, where the two children were diagnosed, are run by the Health Workers’ Committees NGO. It is part of CARE’s health project, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid. Funds are provided for running cost including salaries of doctors and health workers; pharmaceuticals, laboratory supplies, medical equipment, disposables, health education material, furniture, and transportation cost. In the Mother-Child Health Care Center, where Manal was diagnosed with cancer, the clinic treats women for various types of infections, testing pregnancies on the ultrasound provided as part of the project, conducting laboratory testing, and offering health education and raising awareness about women’s health issues. For More Information Please Contact Ayman Shuaibi, ECHO Health Project Manager, CARE WBG (shuaibi@carewbg.org)  Abeer, playing with her doll in the family home in Saeer. Her congenital heart problem is gone |