The CWWHI is Impacting Lives
"The following is an extract from my recent update to India Health Foundation Board members. It is a heart-warming example of the effect Cyndi's legacy is having on people thousands of miles away. Very simply put, it is life giving!" Dr. Nasreen Hussain
Cyndi Wiese Women's Health Initiative is going very well under the direction of Dr. Sundari Krishna's (Madame). However, this program takes patient care one step further by way of more active, more urgent and sometimes more emergent intervention. Two cases in point:
1) A middle aged woman presented with severe uterine hemorrhage and hemoglobin of 5.5
(normal is 12-14). She was not well to do and only had minimal resources. The nature and location of the tumor made it impossible to stop the bleeding by medical intervention. Madame referred the patient to a government hospital for surgery where she was put on a waiting
list. Madame then asked one of her star students now in private practice to donate her
surgical services which she did; but we still needed to cover about $240 in other expenses.
Shaktishifa arranged for blood transfusions and readied her for surgery. The patient did well
and Madame was personally involved with all the arrangements and recovery of the patient
and even visited her in the hospital.
2) A 30 year old woman from a far off village was brought by her aunt who lives in Hyderabad
and is a regular at our clinic. The patient with her 5 year old daughter were thrown out
by her husband because she was so ill and couldn't take care of her family. Her problem
was persistent chronic vomiting being unable to keep anything down. When we saw her she
looked like a terminal cancer/TB patient with severe malnutrition. Initial work-up and chest
x-ray showed a mass in the chest. This meant the next step in her work-up was a chest CT
with contrast to know exactly what the mass was. The cost for this was $120. At this point,
I made the decision that the foundation should pay for it in the interest of time and the patient's
dire condition.
Chest CT showed a rare condition of the esophagus which is a totally salvageable condition but requires endoscopic intervention and follow-up. Another day spent networking with our volunteer specialists resulted in the procedure being done by an expert gastroenterologist at no cost and an overnight stay. The result was a deliriously happy patient who was suddenly able to eat normally again and wanted to eat every ten minutes as per her aunt! During her work-up she also saw Madame for her gynecological health at which point she broke down and confessed about the ill-treatment by her husband and her resulting depression. Our psychiatrist was on hand for help on that front. Time spent from patient presenting at the clinic until the end of successful procedure-one week. She returned to the village and her husband.