Please help NATC save a life

NATC has sponsored the medical treatment of a young Liberian lady, Ms. Naomi Zeinabu Meh aged 30. She is currently admitted in Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai, India under the supervision and care of Dr. Jayant Barve, a respected MD and Gastroenterologist. 

Patient Details: Ms. Naomi Zeinabu MEH, Ward No. 6, Bed No. 24, Indoor Patient No. 12005, Liberian Passport No. L 043646

Since she has been under the care of the doctors in India, we have found out that not only does Naomi have Osteo-Carcinoma (Cancer in the Pelvic Bone) but is also suffering from Jaundice and TB. This really explains the enormous suffering she has been undergoing for the past few years.  She reportedly used to vomit huge amounts of blood before the treatment began at the hospital. At the moment, the doctors are trying to first cure the Jaundice and TB, which is on course.  They have also started Radio Therapy treatment to shrink the tumor in her pelvic area before considering the supra-major surgery to excise the tumour. The Doctors believe that if they rush into carrying out the surgery without ensuring her Lungs and Liver are in suitable condition, then the surgery could be prove fatal as it will be done under General Anesthesia and there are chances of Lung/Liver Failure/Collapse if they are not fit enough. Therefore she will undergo treatment for the Jaundice and TB until the Doctors confirm that she is fit for surgery to remove the tumor. This may take up to the next 2-3 weeks.

Naomi is 30 years old, a mother of a 10-year old girl and a former employee of NLTC (the predecessor of NATC). Naomi has been suffering for several years now from a malignant tumour in the pelvic region of her body. She sought treatment from various hospitals and as you all know, given the poor quality of care available at the medical facilities in Liberia, has continued to suffer because of the lack of proper diagnosis and treatment. The doctors at Firestone Hospital actually amputated one of her legs which was unnecessary. 

Noami used to visit the NATC offices from time to time and, to take her mind off her illness, offered to provide voluntary administrative and marketing duties. She managed to even get us a new client. Naomi is an exceptionally intelligent, capable and wonderful girl. More than that, she is a survivor and we wonder how she has managed to cope with her pain all this time.

Having learned more about the suffering she has undergone - she has not been able to get a decent night's sleep in the last few years due to the sheer agony she suffers from - NATC made the decision to sponsor her travel and associated costs to and from India. 

We got her a passport, visa to India and arranged for the ticket and travelling cash which amounted to about $ 2,500.00. We have also borne the initial hospital fees which amount to US $ 3,000.00. The next step of her treatment involves US$5,000.00  and a further US$5,000.00 (maybe more)  for the Major Surgery. We are committed to bear the financial costs and to go all the way in order to save her life. She herself has insisted that she would rather die on the surgery table rather than come back to Liberia to continue a life of physical misery.

The doctors predict a 80 % rate of recovery and extended life span by another 5-10 years. 

NATC is a mid-sized company that is trying its best to help Naomi. We are requesting our friends and community to help us do a good deed and save the life of Naomi who deserves a fighting chance. 

We will appreciate any amount of contribution, even amounts as little as US$100.00. Every penny counts! We spend hundreds of dollars going to the beach/restaurant/ entertainment on ourselves. If everyone of us decides to skip one such outing this can help save a life.

You may give the donation to us in cash or directly transfer to the NATC Account in Monrovia, Liberia or the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai, India:

Nanavati Hospital, India

Bank name: Axis Bank, Santa Cruz West.

Account no: 778010200000019 in favour of Dr. Balabhai Nanavati Hospital.

Swift code: AXISINBB020

IFSC CO: UTIB000778

Make sure that the Patient details are mentioned in the transfer.

New Africa Technology Company

Ecobank Account Number: 004-1024701946001

IB Bank Account Number: 04-00-02532-6

Please see below a letter from the Hospital confirming that Naomi is admitted there and undergoing care. 

You may contact us for more details and information. 

Please join us in a good cause to save the life of a young girl and mother. 

From: Rekha Barve [mailto:rjbarve@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2011 3:25 PM
To: Haresh Karamchandani
Subject: Re: patient detail

Mrs. NAOMI MEH ,30 yrs old female patient  from LIBERIA was admitted at DR. BALABHAI NANAVATI HOSPITAL MUMBAI,for further investigations and management.

Patient admmitted on 13 /10.2011 in ward 6 bed no 24, ipd no 12005, with chief complaints--  1.swelling at left gluteal region    since may 2010
                     2. intermittant pain at left gluteal region  since may 2010

Past history --  

1.Jan 2010 = kochs spine  treated. ( documents unavailable)
2.Feb  2010 = left leg above knee amputation done  in view of  cellulitis of left leg,chronic left foot ulcer and peripheral neuropathy left leg. 

On examination -- 

1.  Genral examination = Afebrile, pulse 88 /min ,BP 110/70, No pallor/icterus/edema feet.
2.  Systemic examination = RS -Air entry equal in both lung, clear
CVS-  Heart sound + CNS.-- Concious ,oriented ,alert.
P/A -- Soft ,non tender,no organomegaly.
3.   Local examination =  1.Left leg above knee amputation +
2. Swelling and tenderness  at left gluteal region + Investigation report -- 1.2 D ECHO = LVEF 60%
2.PFT =  Sev .restriction FVC 37% ,mild small airway obstruction.
3. Colour doppler right lowe limb =  No DVT
4.99 MTC MDP Whole body bone scan = A large Soft tissue mass right iliac bone, avascular tumour
5.X ray chest = Pulmonary kochs.
6. Histo patho report ( biopsy from mass left gluteal region) = Spindle cell neoplasm  ( coagulative necrosis.)
7.Cytology of broncho alveolar lavage = clusters of  acid fast bacili seen, candida spp. 

Mrs. Naomi had a major episode of massive hemoptysis and needed ICU management for 10 days.
     
Antituberculosis treatment was started from 27/10 2011 ( as BAL + VE for Acid fast bacili ) After controlling hemoptysis patient was considered for surgery. However in view of active, advanced pulmonary tuberculosis, fibrosis with restrictive lung disease, poor general condition, immunocomprized state and need of a supramajor surgery  patient  was considered unfit for  surgery and even for chemotherapy.  At present a desicion is made to treat her with radiotherapy, Anti Tuberculosis drugs, chest phyotherapy and improve General condition of the patient.

If patient's general condition improves at the end of radiotherapy, surgical treatment will be considered.

  Dr.Barve

Much Awaited Wooden Floor Is Being Laid at the Loft

Four Diamonds - Floor Design by
None Other Than Haresh Karamchandani

Latest Loft Pictures

  

 

English Improvement Classes

Contributed by Jane Wright

Jane with James, Patience, "8's Cece", and Patrick

When Farzana asked me if I could do weekly English Improvement classes with her staff I was delighted. I am in Monrovia with my husband who is working here on an E.U. project and I was so pleased to be able to do something which will help the company and the individual staff members.

The aim of the sessions has been to help the staff improve their use of English so that they will be more confident and successful in producing the various reports and records which are required by N.A.T.C.

The weekly exercises are based on a range of stories and articles which lead to improved vocabulary and provide a stimulus for discussion.

Each week we cover a basic aspect of grammar. So far we have looked at parts of speech, punctuation and sentence structure.

Some of our work is oral and some written, with a homework assignment to complete every week.

Card activities allow for elements of competition and creativity and lead to some amusing situations!

The group are very enthusiastic and hardworking and the sessions always pass very quickly.

Over the next few weeks we will be working on the writing of personal blogs which will be posted here so look out for them!

NATC is a young and dynamic company who have a very creative approach towards the achievement of their aims, putting staff training high on the agenda and recognising that a capable and confident staff will be the basis of future success.

I wish them the best of good fortune in the years to come.

The Fibre Optic Cable Has Landed in Liberia

Contributed by Farzana Rasheed

*

The eagerly-anticipated fibre optic cable has finally landed in Liberia. This is an exciting moment for the country to say the least. This is the first public private partnership which made this happen. To read more about it, check out this article: "First Fibre Optic Cable System Lands Here." 

There's also a wikipedia article "Cable Consortium of Liberia". 

There are some photos posted on Facebook by Liberian Observer Online of the moment when the cable landed on Thursday, 3 November which was coincidentally the national Thanksgiving Day. 

Deployment of the fibre optic cable infrastructure in the country is going to take some time. There is also an assumption that the cable will immediately replace the current dependence on more expensive technologies such as V-SAT. Not only will it take time to deploy the fibre optic infrastructure but also given Liberia's lack of infrastructure outside of its main centre (Monrovia), connectivity will still depend largely on V-SAT and GSM technologies which are expensive. Of course, it also remains to be seen what kind of average costs broadband will have in Liberia. 

One of our colleagues and friends who is a V-SAT operator in Liberia was quite underwhelmed when discussing fibre optic cable. He told us that Nigeria has three of them and yet the V-SAT business is roaring there. 

So, it remains to be seen how the fibre optic cable will change the dynamics of the business environment in Liberia. Will V-SAT providers be driven into extinction? What business opportunities will be created for IT companies? How soon will the average entity or household in Liberia be connected to high-speed broad band internet?  What kind of prices will we see? And lastly, what will it be like to finally have high-speed (relatively) low-priced internet service?

Meanwhile, NATC is representing an international company that has submitted an Expression of Interest (EOI)  to Liberia Telecommunications Corporation (Libtelco) for the Liberia National Fibre Optic Project. Keeping our fingers crossed!

* Image from http://www.cheaphighspeedinternet.net/

How to Re-size/Save and Email Scanned Documents Most Efficiently

By Haresh Karamchandani

I got an Invitation to Bid from a UN organization yesterday that was 21 pages long! Normally I would just scan a document on my Dell V305 Scanner, save it on my desktop and then attach to my Outlook email. The size would be in excess of 1MB per page and would take very long to send as the internet speeds here in Liberia are pretty slow.

This time around I had to figure out an easier and faster method.

This is how I went about it:

Step 1 

Open “Windows Fax and Scanner” from your start menu.

Step 2  

Lay the document to be scanned in the flatbed scanner, then click on New Scan.

The document will be scanned onto your computer. Then click on save image and save it on your desktop by giving it a suitable name. In my case I named it UN ITB for Tools page 1.

Step 3  

Continue the same process until you have scanned and saved all the pages on your computer desktop.

Step 4 

Go back to your desktop and open the saved page 1 with “Microsoft Office Picture Manager”.

Step 5

The document will open then click on Edit Pictures…, Then click on Compress Pictures and

Choose Compress for document. The file will compress by at least 90%!. My document

Compressed from a 1 MB size to 70 KBs. The click on file and save the document before you close it.

Step 6 

Continue the same procedure as in Step 5 for all the remaining pages on your Desktop.

Finally Step 7 

Open Outlook Express email. Open new email. Then attach the pages one by one, or alternatively you could further compress all the pages in 1 zipped folder and then attach this zipped folder to the email and send in one go!

Weekly English Classes

Contributed by Farzana Rasheed

In an effort to re-inforce some basic English grammar, spelling and syntax amongst our Liberian staff, we have been regularly holding 'classroom' sessions at our office. This has entailed weekly spelling and vocabulary tests where we started off with 20 words and kept adding new ones every week. The words I selected were quite random, ranging from IT buzzwords to really basic words. 

I was pleased to see how enthusiastic and competitive the staff is in response to these tests. I found that my staff was writing down words as they thought it should be pronounced. So, not only was there a gap between how some words are and should be pronounced, but a gap between how it is spoken and spelled. The girls especially have been extremely excited about making sure they got their words right and, making an effort to also understanding the meanings and enrichen their vocabularies. 

Why are we going to such lengths to go back to language basics? Well, first of all, my general impression is that the current education system in Liberia is not producing high school or even university graduates that are equipped with basic skills and knowledge. I often encounter some surprisingly glaring mistakes in written communication. So, I feel that I should try to expose staff to the correct usage and expression. Secondly, NATC produces a lot of paperwork! We have call logs that need to be filled out each time we are on site. We are also often requested by clients to file monthly reports. 

I have been providing feedback to staff on the call logs they write and, encourage them to be more precise, use the technical words, and to write self-explanatory summaries of what they accomplished on site. What was the problem they encountered and how did they diagnose it? What was the problem resolution? Where there any challenges? Call logs have started to improve but we are still a long ways from staff being able to produce monthly reports, to capture what happened, to be able to summarise key points and reflect on challenges and recommendations on improvement. It sounds a bit bureaucratic but monthly reports don't have to be! They can be crisp and delightful without going on and on. 

It is work in progress and in a short time, our staff will get to a point where they are able to capture what it is they are accomplishing on a call log, monthly report or blog entry. 

Meanwhile, we have been extremely lucky to have a wonderful lady, Jane Wright, come in and conduct basic English grammar lessons. She's been coming in for the past 3 weeks and, given she has been a teacher and social worker in the past, she is much more patient than I am. I have usually been working inside my office and only come out once or twice to take a peep, but I often hear jolly laughter and excited exclaimations from Jane and the staff. 

Jane will also be writing about her experience but in the meantime, I would like to share some pictures of the classes.