Our Medicine Woman

Here is a bad picture of our new “Medicine Woman,” Dr. Arati. I’ll replace this with a good one soon. She is a wonder-woman doctor who recently relocated to Hyderabad from So. California with her husband and two kids. Her medical specialty is pediatrics and her primary work was in community care in Hispanic communities. It was like she came from heaven, with custom made skills for our students. We are so excited to have her visit the neighborhood, she offered to come twice a week. Arati is also helping coordinate referrals for special needs (developmental problems, operations, etc.) through our partner organizations. Whoo hooo!

On a personal note, having her little ones around to play with Campbell while I’m working have SAVED me from guilty working mom syndrome. Thank you, Arati!! Last week, we had a blast setting up the little kit for diagnosing and treating the typical cases: cuts, earaches, fevers, and malnutrition (lots of multivitamins with iron). We're setting up the basic first aid kits (to add to the little there is right now), gauze bandages and other dressings and disposable items this week. I'm such a little medical groupie right now, it is like ER in the field with this cool equipment! Arati told me we didn't need test tubes and I got a little disappointed. I told her we could use my office to set up a lab to test sample cultures? She was amused.

This beautiful little baby boy (left) is our first project for the “special needs.” He was born with a club hand, but Arati thinks that it will be an easy fix. We will contact the hospitals and interview doctors together to make sure he will get the best treatment possible. If it is at all possible, we will ask the doctors to donate their services for a (small) contribution to their hospital fund. The operation won't take place until he is about six months older. Here is a picture of the baby's house (on the right), which is SPOTLESS. She is such a good mommy. You can see the baby in the middle if you look real hard.