In February 2020, a team of 20 medical providers and administrative staff from Covenant Medical Outreach (CMO) traveled to remote Nyeri County, Kenya to provide treatment and resources to many under-served patients. EPS physician, Ashley Gray, M.D., was honored to collectively help over 900 patients during the week-long journey. The team established a community medical clinic at a local church and saw patients with varying medical needs such as hypertension, chronic pain, heart failure, and acute needs over 2 days. Patients were supplied with education, medication, and resources for follow-up care through CMO’s local ongoing-care team. “The range of cases of was interesting,” said Dr. Gray. “We had several cases of patients with arthritis from work-related jobs, who were grateful for ibuprofen. Then we treated a small baby with pneumonia and abnormal vitals, who ultimately was transferred to a hospital for higher-level care.”
Afterwards, Dr. Gray and team established another 2-day medical clinic at a local school where she treated pediatric patients from a different medical aspect, such as distributing vitamins, eyeglasses, providing de-worming, etc.
Later in the week, Dr. Gray visited The Cheerful Special Home, a local, non-profit transitional home for mentally handicapped young adults. She and her colleagues interacted with residents by distributing toys, stickers, and playing games. “All of the home’s adults are now verbal,” noted Dr. Gray. “This was not always the case when they first arrived as residents.”
Dr. Gray finished her trip with home visits to local community members who could not attend the clinic earlier in the week. Upon returning home to Phoenix, Dr. Gray mentions having: “an appreciation of what you can do and how much you can do with just a few resources. Even some medicine for the local patients was a huge benefit. We also saw a significant improvement with medical advice and caring conversations.”
To learn more about CMO’s mission and events, please visit their website: http://www.cm-outreach.org