The Prideaux family adventure 2006
On 26th June 2006 the Prideaux family left Heathrow for St Andrews Clinic, Mtunthama. We arrived safely, with not one customs inspection, despite bags bulging with dental equipment and basketballs!!
At the clinic were treated like royalty, with our host families sharing what they had with us, making sure we had hot water for baths, and European-style food.
We divided our time into three areas.
Firstly we assessed the current dental facilities, and looked at the needs of the local population. The facilities consisted of a broken wheelchair a few needles and anaesthetic cartridges, and some very elderly forceps. We marvelled at the skill of Cuthbert, the clinical officer responsible for extractions. During our time there we examined 160 patients, of whom 60% had tooth decay, about half of these complaining of pain.
Our second task was to extract teeth, and carry out some simple fillings for those where the decay was not too far advanced.
Our third task was to set up a preventive programme, consisting of simple tooth brushing instruction and diet advice. We visited the students in the local primary and secondary schools, and families in one of the nearby villages. We had taken supplies of brushes for Cuthbert and James to give to patients who may attend in future for dental advice. By the time we left James, Cuthbert and Millica, the nutritional educator, were ready to work as a team on outreach programmes, in the other nearby villages.
Sam was able to put to use his pharmacy skills in the clinic .One achievement was the cataloguing of medicines, reorganising them, allowing the clinicians to dispose of expired drugs, which had been taking up valuable storage space.
David worked in the laboratory, carrying out blood tests for patients with diseases such as malaria and AIDS. He also taught group of the local lads the finer skills of basketball, and was given permission to use the basketball courts of nearby Kamuzu Academy.
Jonny, made lots of friends at the local primary school, learning about Malaria and agriculture in his science lessons, alongside Maths and English. Education was different to that in the UK, but he really enjoyed it.
As we left we did make a promise to raise funds to provide a much-needed dental surgery to serve the forty thousand local population. In the words of Arnie…the Terminator….”I’ll be back”….