About Chris
Dr Bird left for his first assignment in October as an aid worker with MSF and writes from our hospital in Kimbi Lulenge health zone in Lulimba, a small town in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Category Archives: Doctor
Etoile
Etoile, the French for “star”, is used as a name here in DRC and, with its hint of magic and Saint-Exupery’s Little Prince, I’m going to use the name for a patient who’s very special to the staff and I … Continue reading
Posted in Democratic Republic of Congo, Doctor, Healthcare provision
Tagged determination, Kimbi, malnutrition, Misisi, mother, tb, tuberculosis
4 Comments
Operation Easy Rider
“We’ve got six measles cases,” Asumani, the director of nursing told me when I arrived at the hospital. “Six??” “Oui, docteur.” They were a family of six children from a remote village in neighbouring Maniema Province. Their parents had woken … Continue reading
Posted in Democratic Republic of Congo, Doctor, Healthcare provision
Tagged malaria, measles, vaccination
3 Comments
Timely malaria treatment a matter of life and death
As the sun went down and the ridges of the Mitumba mountains turned a smoke blue, a line of mothers sat quietly on a wooden bench in front of the nurses’ station in the paediatric tent. The children lying in … Continue reading
Posted in Democratic Republic of Congo, Doctor, malaria
Tagged epidemic, severe malaria, transfusion, vaccine
1 Comment
The flying creatures I sleep with
We’ve taken over a compound from another aid agency as a temporary MSF base. ‘Compound’, however, is probably too grand a term for the small, single story building of mud, riddled with termite holes, its bare wooden beams roofed with … Continue reading
Posted in Democratic Republic of Congo, Doctor, Healthcare provision
Tagged communications, family, food, wildlife
4 Comments
The silent cost of child malnutrition
Just as I was about to leave for the day, Steve, one of the nurses, asked me if I could see this one case before going. Beatrice (not her real name) was two years and seven months old when she … Continue reading
Posted in Democratic Republic of Congo, Doctor, malnutrition
Tagged child, feeding centre, insecurity, Julian Tudor Hart, malnutrition
14 Comments
Il faut se debrouiller! (You’ll just have to muddle through!)
Kimbi Lulenge, South Kivu, DRC Our team arrived to start working at the Lulimba Hospital at the height of the malaria season. We barely had time to unpack our boxes because we were greeted with a crowd of sick children … Continue reading
Posted in Democratic Republic of Congo, Doctor, Healthcare provision
Tagged malaria, supplies, surgery
5 Comments
Journey to Lulimba
Long journeys in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are a part of the dizzying extremes in this country dripping with precious minerals but where one in five children die before their fifth birthday. Of the 153,497 km of mapped … Continue reading