Dr Lunn - His foreign secondment

MORPETH ROTARY DOCTOR JAMES LUNN ON MEDICAL WORK IN MALAWI

When Dr. James Lunn donated a batch of excellent tools to the Morpeth Rotary 'Tools for Africa' appeal and told Vice President Julie he had worked in Africa, he was invited to speak about his experiences. He is a GP, who has worked in New Zealand and now works in North Tyneside as a Clinical Director overseeing 9 practices at 13 centres. He was born in Whitley Bay, went to school in Newcastle,trained at Nottingham University and lives in Morpeth.

The people of Malawi in East Arica, once called Nyasaland, are renowned for their friendliness and make the best gin in Africa. It was a wonderful experience to work there although his first bus ride in was alarming. At the first refreshment stop he was offered cooked mice, still attached to a large roasting frame. Vendors at the second stop were selling machetes. The country is 85% rural but unfortunately one of the main crops is tobacco. It is the fourth poorest country in Africa with half the people living on a dollar a day and 100,000 living with HIV. It has the highest percentage of uneducated females, child marriage and child pregnancy in Africa. 

His work was at the hospital on Likoma Island in lake Malawi. The island had no mains electricity, no paved roads and little petrol. It been a British missionary centre and even had a palace where a Church of England Bishop, was said to live in some style. St. Peter's Mission Hospital had no electricity, no oxygen, used a pressure cooker to boil needles for re-use and had a limited range of partly labelled, out of date medicines. People died there every day but there were moments of success.  He was called from his bed one night to look at a ten year old boy with life threatening asthma who was not breathing. They could only offer manual ventilation. He could be saved at a facility on the mainland, but that would mean the hire of a jet boat for £200. Thankfully a vice president, hoping for re-election, was visiting. He had a throat infection and came to the hospital so James was able to mention the boy. The politician had him flown to South Africa for life saving treatment. In another emergency a young mother needed a Caesarean section and they had no anaesthetic. They used an out of date batch of ketamine with no dosage on it that put her to sleep for the required time. The lady was sewn up by James with a far from neat scar but mother and child survived. 

There were so many simple items that would make so much difference to local people. They included paper to write on, basic education, and projects such as Tools for Africa. The people were resilient and turned problems into opportunities. One day he saw a thick cloud drifting down from the sky. It was not a storm but a great cloud of flies. They made it hard to breathe and flies found their way deep into people's clothing. They caught the flies and made them into small protein cakes to cook and eat. There was no meat on the island but there were fish, but with without fridges they had maggots. They said don't worry, when you cook them the maggots come out. He only had six months in Malawi and had to accept that when he left the death rate and the level of dispair would return to what it had been. 

Ever mindful of medical need, James announced there will be Covid boosters available from April and there is to be a move to encourage vaccination against Pneumonia. 

The vote of thanks was given by Andrew Hamnett.