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Saving a life via safari truck

 

Jennifer Taylor volunteered in Madagascar with Mercy Ships, a surgical ship that travels to different areas of Africa to provide free surgeries for people in need. Photo by Josh Callow.

A mother brought her eight-year-old boy to the medical caravan in Tanzania where RN Jennifer Taylor was on her first mission abroad. His infected jaw was so bad that the dripping pus covered his shirt collar. He had been suffering with the abscess for three years.

“I saw him the next day in the hospital, smiling,” said Taylor. “I knew at that moment I was hooked. Tanzania had a piece of my heart and I knew that volunteering in Africa would always have to be a part of my life in some form or another.

“That day, we were able to pay for his admission to the hospital and start a treatment of antibiotics that he would never have been able to afford otherwise,” said Taylor. “I will never forget the smile on his mother’s face when she realized that we could help him.”

As part of the Canada-Africa Community Health Alliance, Taylor provided basic health care to those without access in remote villages. She has also participated in other medical caravans on Ukerewe Island, Tanzania, in Kammengo, Uganda, and with Mercy Ships in its Post-Anesthesic Care Unit in Madagascar.

“Mercy Ships is a big surgical ship that travels to different African countries to provide free surgery to people who would never be able to access it or afford it on their own,” said Taylor. Living and working in African countries has made Taylor grateful for the health-care system in Canada.

“Health care in Africa is actually quite available in the larger cities and communities,” she explained. “What makes the difference is accessibility. Much of the population cannot physically travel the distance to reach a hospital. Even if they did, they would never be able to pay for the diagnostics and treatments once they got there.”

JE Oct 28 Jennifer Taylor #2 Tanzania J cover

Jennifer Taylor returned to Tanzania in November 2015 to co-lead a medical caravan. “I feel very blessed to live in a country where our basic requirements of life are more than provided for, so I think it’s important to share our knowledge and skills with those that are not as fortunate.”

Taylor appreciates the high standard of care and innovative technology that exists in Canada compared to other countries. On one of her medical caravans, she assessed a very sick two-year-old boy who had come to the clinic with his grandmother because his parents abandoned him. Testing positive for malaria, he lost consciousness and needed to be revived twice.

“We rushed him to the local hospital where we gave him a unit of blood donated by one of our volunteers, started him on anti-malarial drugs, IV antibiotics and treated his low blood sugar,” said Taylor. “I remember riding in the safari truck with him praying that he would just make it to the hospital alive. Fortunately, that little boy’s life was saved that day. He would never have made it to the hospital in time had we not been in that particular village on that day. It takes so little on our part to help someone so greatly. It’s literally life-changing for them and also life-changing for me.”

Taylor volunteers because she believes in the importance of getting involved in causes greater than herself.

“Travelling to these countries helps us recognize that people all over the world have the same basic human needs as we do here in Canada,” she said. “It enhances our compassion for humanity, creates new perspective and generates respect for human life.”

Taylor returned to Tanzania in November to co-lead a medical caravan in the region of Shirati, with a focus on HIV and sexually transmitted infections testing and education.

“I consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to use my skills as a nurse to contribute to a greater good,” she explained. “My small trips may not be world-altering but if I can positively impact even just one life or be a part of a team that changes the health outcome for one person, it’s all worthwhile.”

 
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