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Friday I returned to Port Antonio. I alternate Friday’s working between the Hospital (top of the hill) and Health Centre (bottom of the hill). Since its a 2 hour drive from my base in Tower Isle, Fridays involve a lot of commuting. It’s a beautiful hilly winding drive, though, especially in eastern Portland Parish where Port Antonio is. “Lush” is the word that comes to mind. The “bush” as it is called here, is filled with palms, orchids, wild bananas, and huge flowering tropical trees. Portland Parish is called “the Garden Parish” and is decidedly less developed than the western end of the north coast. The bush itself is very dense and wild feeling. I’ve read that Port Antonio was THE tourist center in the 1940s and 50s . The actor Errol Flynn ran his yacht ashore off of Port Antonio and liked it so much he ended up staying. His Hollywood friends followed and Port Antonio became THE destination of the rich and famous. Today its pretty quiet though a yacht harbor here bears his name. The town itself has become somewhat of a backwater despite its natural beauty. There are no pediatricians here that I”m aware of. I function as a consultant while here rotating between the local health centre and the hospital/ED. Sicker kids are referred to Annotto Bay or Bustamante Children’s Hospital in Kingston. Finally, I was asked a question this week by a concerned Mom (Mummy) in Jamaica. I had just finished seeing her daughter who had a very obvious case of impetigo on her face and arms. I had completed her prescription and talked about treatment with Mummy. “But wait, doctor, what about her sugar medicine”. Whoa! did I miss something important? She sure didn’t look like a new diabetic, there had been no history of diabetes, she sure wasn’t ketotic….. As I started to ask Mummy about symptoms and diabetes, she replied “no doctor, every time she eats sugar this comes”. Her favorite food? Sweets of course…..problem solved!! No more medicines needed, Mummy, just stop the sweets!! and Mummy smiled

I can’t believe the time here is passing so rapidly!! My second week started with a challenging Monday at Port Maria. On arrival I became immediately involved with an asthmatic boy. He repsonded to treatment but as I was writing up his chart I heard faint labored stridor from the A&ED. Wandering over, I found it was a small 6 month old girl with significant croup…. croup you that may cause airway obstruction. !!!! Again, working with the local A&E doctors, racemic epinephrine eased the symptoms significantly. But with the baby’s age and presentation she was soon on her way to Annotto Bay for admission and more care than could be done at Port Maria. Off to a busy start! Unfortunately the day ended sadly with the stabbing death of a 15 year old boy. He was in an altercation with a classmate at his local high school and arrived dead…..in the back of a pickup truck trying to get him to care in time. He was still in his school uniform….. My experience so far here has been one of warm, caring, friendly people. Not just at the resort that I’m staying at, but with the staff in the A&ED (ER), the parents in my clinics, all the Jamaicans I’ve met. They’re very proud of their country, they’re very concerned about family, and they have gone out of their way to thank me for volunteering. I saw how shaken many were with this boy’s needless death and their concern for their own children. Violence is sadly present in both of our cultures. Perhaps by volunteering we can help, just a little, better lives both in Jamaica and at home.

In general, many of the patients I see in Jamaica have similar issues to my patients in Minnesota. Some things, however, are distinctly different. What did I know about Ackee fruit before coming here…..well, Nothing! Yet I’ve been told that ackee is Jamaica’s national fruit. It’s served with saltfish for breakfast and is probably the most popular dish besides Jerked “fill-in-the-meat”. It’s even frequently on our breakfast buffet here at Couples tower Isle. that’s all well and good until you find out that ackee, if eaten less than fully ripe, causes a rapid and profound hypoglycemic reaction that can be potentially fatal. You sure can’t say that about your morning poached egg or bowl of Wheaties!! As a result Docs here take ackee poisoning very seriously and screen any potential victim very closely. Ackee ingestion is even the leadoff question on the ER’s triage screening form. Hmmmmm, I did have ackee and saltfish this morning………. Another Jamaican custom I’ve been introduced to is Bush Tea. Initially I thought it might be a local brand of tea (why not, they grow great coffee here) or perhaps a type of specialty tea from the more remote inland mountains. Wrong on both counts. Bush tea is a traditional medicinal tea, or I should say teas, made quite literally from a bush. Which bush you may ask? Well from a variety of bushes depending on the illness being treated and the grandmother involved. Some, like peppermint tea, are benign. Others, like “Leaf of Life” buy you a ticket to a Hospital bed. Teas are made from plants like “Dog Blood” (yum) and “Spirit Weed” (you’ll soon be one?). One local doc joked that the stranger the name the more trouble you may be in. It’s a real issue here as bush teas are still commonly given for a wide range of complaints. In kids especially, the “safe” range…if there is one….may be very narrow due to body size. in addition, patients or parents may not know of their bush teas ingredients or may be reluctant to say. That brings up another issue: that of Jamaican culture and traditions……but I’ll save that for another post.

I’ve finished my first week working in Jamaica and all is well. My routine is Monday and Tuesday at Port Maria, Wednesday and Thursday at Port Annotto, and Friday at Port Antonio. The clinics/health services see a range of children from well infants to complicated medical issues for local followup. In addition, I made hospital teaching rounds on Wednesday with Dr Ramos and the junior officers (residents) at Annotto Bay, a real treat. There haven’t been any completely new problems so far, but a real mix of typical and atypical pediatric problems. My most “exotic” patient was a 7 year old otherwise healthy girl who had coughed up an nightcrawler sized (Ascaris lumbricodes) worm. Fortunately, I have seen this before (SE Asia, and Indiana…of all places) and treatment was easy. By the way, Mom said she also had seen these before!! Can you even imagine gagging up something like this????!! The beastie has a very complex life cycle and in this case matures in the lungs to be coughed up and out to start the next generation. Lesson: eat well cooked food and wear sandals!! The resort Issa Trust has put me up at is beautiful with wonderful food and services. Last year at this time I was working with Issa’s US partner (and my co-sponsor) Heart To Heart International on a disaster team in rural Nepal after the Kathmandu earthquake. We were living in tents with limited food and no reliable source of clean water amid ruins. The contrast is stark although when you get down to it, the basic paediatric health needs aren’t that dissimilar. Issa Trust is obviously very well respected among the Jamaicans I’ve worked with and those I’ve seen as patients. I’m very happy to be here and have the chance to work with this exceptional organisation!!