{"id":74125,"date":"2020-09-23T20:50:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T17:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/inside-a-sierra-leone-doctors-dedicated-mission-against-covid-19\/"},"modified":"2020-09-23T20:50:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T17:50:48","slug":"inside-a-sierra-leone-doctors-dedicated-mission-against-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/inside-a-sierra-leone-doctors-dedicated-mission-against-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"#Inside a Sierra Leone doctor\u2019s dedicated mission against COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Inside a Sierra Leone doctor\u2019s dedicated mission against COVID-19<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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If you want to watch Movies<\/a> or TV series visit the Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\n DAKAR, Senegal \u2014 Dr. Mamadu Baldeh can\u2019t forget the 18-year-old who came into his hospital with COVID-19, gasping for air until the day he died. This suffering was all too real for Baldeh, who battles asthma just as that young man did.<\/p>\n

At the time, Baldeh, 32, was the only physician treating COVID-19 patients at Sierra Leone\u2019s main public hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis moved me significantly and made me very worried at the time,\u201d the doctor recalled of the young man, one of dozens who has now died from the virus at Connaught Hospital, in the capital, Freetown. \u201cAnd really I couldn\u2019t figure out how or why I kept my composure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The patient was so young, restless and wasn\u2019t responding well to any of the attempted treatments, Baldeh said, recounting how difficult it was to watch him struggle.<\/p>\n

That was May. Now there have been hundreds of cases and the staff at the hospital\u2019s COVID-19 unit has swelled to four doctors and 20 nurses. Until the additional doctors arrived, he was sleeping at the hospital practically every night instead of returning to his home where he stays with his sister and nephew, Baldeh said in his calm, matter-of-fact manner.<\/p>\n

But supplies remain a struggle. Sometimes patients must share oxygen tanks, and often patients can\u2019t get or even afford medications they need.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 is an added burden on Sierra Leone\u2019s fragile health system, which is still recovering from an 11-year civil war that ended in 2002 and an Ebola outbreak that killed nearly 4,000 people between 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n

Sierra Leone, a West African country of 7.6 million people, has reported 2,174 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 72 deaths, according to figures released Wednesday by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

Baldeh is the medical officer in charge of the hospital\u2019s infectious diseases unit in a hospital that serves the highest number of TB patients in the country. He must disinfect himself several times a day going between the wards to avoid the risk of passing COVID-19 to those among the most vulnerable. He is a general<\/a> practitioner, looking to specialize in infectious diseases, so he reports to his mentor, the only infectious disease specialist in Sierra Leone, who works elsewhere in Freetown.<\/p>\n

Baldeh is also the head of the Junior Doctors Association of Sierra Leone, in a nation where more than 80% of doctors are under the age of 35. Many more, like him, trained overseas and are now choosing to return to help support the healthcare system.<\/p>\n

He makes app<\/a>earances on talk shows to give advice about COVID-19 and has been campaigning with colleagues for better conditions for healthcare workers and patients.<\/p>\n

In July doctors went on strike to demand hazard pay for working in the COVID-19 unit. Protective equipment also has been in short supply.<\/p>\n

Even before the coronavirus, doctors in Sierra Leone often would go on strike for better pay and essential supplies. COVID-19 has once again drawn attention to the pressing needs just four years after the disastrous Ebola epidemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID-19 is \u2026 only pointing out most of the weaknesses,\u201d in the system, he said.<\/p>\n

At the start of the pandemic, Baldeh and his colleagues tried to memorize patients\u2019 vital statistics to avoid spreading the disease by touching possibly contaminated paperwork. Now, they write the information on a sheet of paper and put it in an area called the hatch, where food is distributed. Doctors and nurses then take photos of the data with their smartphones, he said.<\/p>\n

Despite all precautions, several colleagues in Freetown have contracted COVID-19 and at least four have died, devastating morale. Two died before test results confirmed they had the disease. Many of the healthcare workers who have died didn\u2019t necessarily get it from working in the COVID-19 unit, Baldeh said.<\/p>\n

To him, COVID-19 is another in a long line of challenges facing Sierra Leone\u2019s healthcare system, from infrastructure to leadership, which he hopes to help improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these undermine the fate of many patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, Baldeh said being a doctor has always been his passion. Not a day goes by that he regrets his choice of career.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mantra is and always has been service to others and appreciation for getting to where I am today,\u201d he said. \u201cI serve because I believe I owe that to everyone I may have come in contact with.\u201d<\/p>\n

COVID-19 has been Baldeh\u2019s greatest professional test, and he believes he has passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m scared anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes you get used to the situation, even though it\u2019s not a good thing.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Inside a Sierra Leone doctor\u2019s dedicated mission against COVID-19” If you want to watch Movies or TV series visit the Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com DAKAR, Senegal \u2014 Dr. Mamadu Baldeh can\u2019t forget the 18-year-old who came into his hospital with COVID-19, gasping for air until the day he died. This suffering was all too real for Baldeh, who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/sierra-leone-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[72191,1545,2243,72442],"class_list":["post-74125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-9-23-20","tag-coronavirus","tag-doctors","tag-sierra-leone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}