What Happened Before We Got Here?
By Pia and Anselm VarniCRS Volunteers, Malawi
In recent months we have received a steady stream of requests from the Home-Based Care Volunteers in Chinsapo, near Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, as they have seen that we are willing to drive patients in our vehicle to the hospital, patients who otherwise could not afford to go.
BICYCLE AMBULANCE: Elifaz Manipula, the ambulance driver, is trying out the bicycle ambulance with a passenger outside the Chinsapo Orphan Outreach center near Lusaka, Malawi on a clinic day.
Malawi has been our home as CRS volunteers since October 2006, where we serve people living with and affected by HIV or AIDS. We will be leaving Malawi soon to return to the United States for the U.S. component of the volunteer program.
This week, appreciating the value of getting people to the hospital and recognizing their dependency on our vehicle, the community started asking themselves what they are going to do after we leave.
It is progress when we get to this stage where, without our prompting, the question surfaces for discussion.
In our discussion we were told that there has been, recently, a bicycle ambulance placed at the residence of the chief close to our clinic location but only one or two people knew about this.
What's a bicycle ambulance?
Basically it's a bicycle that has a small trailer hitch welded to a rack on top of the rear wheel and a light trailer that looks like a metal bed frame with two bicycle wheels and a mat for the patient to lie on. It seems very rudimentary and dangerous on the deeply rutted dirt roads. Neither do we see it traveling down the paved roads with traffic to the hospital, but in a serious situation, it is transportation.
The initial thought is for the Home-Based Care volunteers to start making contact with the chief to bring the bicycle ambulance to the clinic center on the days when the nurse is seeing patients and be available to pick up patients that are not able to walk. For the most part, this would give several people the opportunity to get familiar with the safe handling of a bicycle and trailer so that when an emergency does arise they would be prepared.
Appreciating the value of getting people to the hospital and recognizing their dependency on our vehicle, the community started asking themselves what they are going to do after we leave?
We do have some serious concerns as to how to best balance the patient, what road conditions to avoid, what help will the driver need and how do we transport family members that usually accompany the sick to the hospital?
You have to realize that any food, drinks, clothing or comfort the patient receives in the hospital is supplied and prepared by family or a guardian during the hospital stay. A very typical scene when we take someone to the hospital at night is to see family members sleeping under and beside the bed of the patient with cooking utensils and food tucked away with them. There is not much room to get to the patient or for the patient to go to the rest room if
need be.
In any case, this coming week we will familiarize ourselves with the bicycle ambulance.
What happened before we got here? If a patient was too weak to ride on the back of a bicycle, they waited and hoped to get better.
