Strong_Photos
Sudan_Jill_Seaman_by_Bruce_Strong 12
SUDAN: OLD FANGAK.(Occassionally, Western doctors visit to learn from Dr. Seaman—and to help her with the never-ending stream of patients. She is seen here with Dr. David Reed and medical student Becky Bollin.)
.Dr. Jill Seaman has been working in this part of the world for more than 20 years, traveling back and forth from her home in Alaska despite continued Department of State warnings against going there. For six months of the year, she works in a decaying colonial-era medical compound treating up to 100 patients a day. Dr. Seaman has earned international recognition for her groundbreaking work on visceral leishmaniasis, the second-most deadly parasitic killer, behind only malaria. In 1997 she was featured in Time Magazine’s special report on Heroes of Medicine...Complete with crumbling floors and walls pock-marked from the last round of fighting, the 10-bed hospital ward in Old Fangak is more like a petri dish of infectious diseases than a respite from them. From the leprous woman whose fingers were themselves crumbling, to cases of malaria, tetanus, leishmaniasis and brucecellosis, Jill treats more conditions than most Western physicians will ever see, and some they will never see. She uses other rooms as classrooms for teaching residents about basic health and as a “pharmacy” for storing the scant medicines. A sparse but cleaner room is used for minor operations and delivering babies. Several small buildings and huts are reserved for infectious patients with the likes of tuberculosis and such...Although she’s been bombed, caught in crossfire and robbed at gunpoint, it’s the rationing of care she finds most difficult. She is truly one of the great unsung heros of our world...Dr. Jill Seaman was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship on September 22, 2009..
Photo by Bruce Strong, www.brucestrong.com
Sudan_Jill_Seaman_by_Bruce_Strong 12
SUDAN: OLD FANGAK.(Occassionally, Western doctors visit to learn from Dr. Seaman—and to help her with the never-ending stream of patients. She is seen here with Dr. David Reed and medical student Becky Bollin.)
.Dr. Jill Seaman has been working in this part of the world for more than 20 years, traveling back and forth from her home in Alaska despite continued Department of State warnings against going there. For six months of the year, she works in a decaying colonial-era medical compound treating up to 100 patients a day. Dr. Seaman has earned international recognition for her groundbreaking work on visceral leishmaniasis, the second-most deadly parasitic killer, behind only malaria. In 1997 she was featured in Time Magazine’s special report on Heroes of Medicine...Complete with crumbling floors and walls pock-marked from the last round of fighting, the 10-bed hospital ward in Old Fangak is more like a petri dish of infectious diseases than a respite from them. From the leprous woman whose fingers were themselves crumbling, to cases of malaria, tetanus, leishmaniasis and brucecellosis, Jill treats more conditions than most Western physicians will ever see, and some they will never see. She uses other rooms as classrooms for teaching residents about basic health and as a “pharmacy” for storing the scant medicines. A sparse but cleaner room is used for minor operations and delivering babies. Several small buildings and huts are reserved for infectious patients with the likes of tuberculosis and such...Although she’s been bombed, caught in crossfire and robbed at gunpoint, it’s the rationing of care she finds most difficult. She is truly one of the great unsung heros of our world...Dr. Jill Seaman was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship on September 22, 2009..
Photo by Bruce Strong, www.brucestrong.com