Physical Health Uganda Project #10843

Saving Lives With Emergency Care in Rural Uganda

by Global Emergency Care

Saving Lives With Emergency Care in Rural Uganda

Project Report | Dec 30, 2014
Gratitude for Your Support in 2014

By Tom Neill | Operations Director

Proud Mother & Child at ED in Nyakibale

Can you imagine having a very sick daughter in need of emergency care but living in a place where nobody is trained to treat her? That’s the situation across most of sub-Saharan Africa where GECC trains Emergency Care Providers.

Precious was sick; she was too weak to hold her head up, too tired to cry as her father carried her into the Emergency Department at Nyakibale Hospital in rural Uganda. Her two and a half year-old body lay motionless on the stretcher, her skin unnaturally pale. Precious not only had falciparum malaria, the most deadly type, but she had several complications including severe anemia, low blood sugar, and repeated seizures. Her chances of survival were extremely slim.

Within less than a minute of Precious’ arrival to the Emergency Department, the GECC trained Emergency Care Providers began an initial assessment and worked quickly to treat her. Over the next two hours there was a calm, professional flurry of activity working on her treatment plan, while monitoring her condition closely.

When Precious left the hospital a few days later, she was walking, talking, playing, and even smiling. She was lucky to be treated in the only Emergency Department in rural sub-Saharan Africa.

For children like Precious, living near trained emergency care professionals saved her life. Saving Precious’ life was made possible thanks to support from generous donors like you. We only have one day left in our 2014 Giving Challenge. Today, more than ever, we need your support. Please donate to empower GECC to help save children’s lives.

The GECC family would like to express our sincere gratitude to you and all our supporters. We are humbled by your generosity. We look forward to building a healthier world with you in 2015 and beyond.

The GECC family wishes you and yours a very happy and healthy New Year!

With deepest gratitude,
Tom Neill

P.S. Your gift of $25 will pay one Ugandan trainer a teaching stipend for an entire month!

Thank You for Your Support!

Thanks for Building a Healthier World

Links:

Empower Ugandan Health Workers Today!

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Dec 16, 2014
Build a Heathier World

By Tom Neill | Operations Director

Invest in People. Invest in GECC

Celebrate the holidays this year by giving the gift of HOPE

Thank you to all our Giving Tuesday donors. We are humbled by your generosity. GECC was able to raise over $12,000 towards our year end goal. But, we still have $6,647 to go to complete our Year End Giving Challenge goal and YOU can help. Your donation will directly fund the expansion of the Emergency Care Practitioner program to Masaka Hospital in Uganda in 2015. By expanding the ECP program, we will be able test the hypothesis that provision of emergency care by non-physician clinicians can have a significant impact on death and disability. Proving the intervention’s effectiveness in a large, public hospital will allow for more support for expansion throughout the Ugandan health care system and will encourage the application of the model in other settings in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Heather Hammerstedt, Co-Founder and Executive Director, reflects on the past seven years. Here's an excerpt from her new blog post: "We’ve built an emergency department at Nyakibale Hospital, have created an innovative and unique task shifting emergency care training program that is garnering international attention, have published international articles from a wealth of robust data, have a model being replicated in other countries, have advised nations on emergency care, are on our fifth class of Emergency Care Practitioners and are planning an expansion of the program nationally and in Kenya." Read the entire blog.

Give a Gift In Honor or In Memory of a Loved One
If you're stuck for a great last minute gift idea, check out GECC's GlobalGiving page where you can give a gift in honor of or in memory of a loved one and send them a paper or electronic card to tell them how much you appreciate them.

Thank you for your continued support. GECC wishes you and yours a Happy and Healthy Holidays season.

Warm regards,

Tom

Gracious Father and Son

Nyakibale, Uganda

Very young ED patient

Links:

Donate Today!

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Dec 2, 2014
Increase you impact today for #GivingTuesday

By Tom Neill | Operations Director

The road to the Emergency Department in Nyakibale

I hope Thanksgiving was a wonderful time for you shared with family and friends. I’m writing because today officially begins GECC’s year-end fundraising campaign. Today, we are participating in #GivingTuesday – a global movement to celebrate generosity and giving. In that spirit of generosity, GECC’s board of directors has offered to match all donations to GECC by 50%. That means for every $100 you donate, GECC will receive $150 to deliver life saving emergency care to those who need it most. To qualify for the matching funds, you must donate through GECC's website HERE.

To learn more about where your donations go, I would like to introduce you to Glorious, one of GECC’s junior Emergency Care Practitioners (ECPs). Glorious began her training as an ECP in January of 2014. Like several other ECPs, Glorious studied nursing at Nyakibale hospital where she first started working with the ECPs in the Emergency Department as a student. She graduated from nursing school in 2013 and found a job as a nurse in Ibanda. But before she left Nyakibale, she told her friends that as soon as GECC opened the application process for the next class of ECPs to let her know. It was opened in the end of 2013; she applied, interviewed in December with Dr. Heather, and started the program in January 2014. She loves working as an ECP because she learns so much and loves taking care of patients. She says that she has very smart and knowledgeable teachers in her senior ECPs and the visiting physicians. She finds working as an ECP challenging for her because she lives over seven hours away from her family, but she is doing work that makes it worth it to her.

Together, we can help save lives by providing training and education to qualified ECPs. On average, each trained Emergency Care Practitioner will treat over 40,000 patients during the course of their career. Support GECC today and change people's lives tomorrow!

Father and child at Emergency Department

Child at the Emergency Department

Links:

Donate for #GivingTuesday

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