Our second and final day in Sirkot saw a steady line of people wanting treatment, with 354 registrations before we closed up after lunch, to enable our health providers to see everyone in an unrushed manner and allow us to pack up and head back down the hill before it got dark. With 517 consultations between the four disciplines, this was no mean feat!
As usual the eye team was in most demand (231 patients), and it was wonderful to see an old friend from 2014 come to get her eyes rechecked and her prescription updated. Dikshya, who was only 18 months old when were first saw her, was born with congenital bilateral cataracts and was only able to see by looking over the top of her cataracts. We organised surgery for her at the Tilgunga National Eye Hospital in Kathmandu and she is now a cheeky, boisterous 6 year old with slowly improving vision. Post surgery her vision was -16 in both eyes, and it is now -14 which is fantastic. Although very good while her eyes were being tested, she was more interested in choosing which lenses she should look through for herself and enjoyed rifling through box of lenses and trying them out!
Our gynaecological team worked tirelessly seeing 107 ladies. Internal examinations were given to most (a few refused) and counselling to all. Across both days they saw, 8 uterine prolapses, 3 cases of cervical polyps and one more serious case of cervical endothelial neoplasma in one of the community health workers. Six ladies were also diagnosed with abnormal cervical cells through the application of acetic acid to the cervix. The fact that so many ladies took the opportunity to be seen, shows just how vital such a service this is in rural areas.
The dental clinic saw a steady stream of patients and between the 3 of them, across both days performed 74 extractions, 53 restorations and scaled 45 sets of teeth! They also replaced 7 teeth for four patients and provided counselling and education on oral health care, as well as giving out free toothbrushes, kindly donated by John Dear.
Our last clinic, chest and TB screening saw everyone from the very young to the very old offering a very valuable service where chest complaints are rife, often due to the inhalation of particulate matter from the wood fires used for cooking. On this final day they listened to 80 chests and 175 across the 2 days.
Once again a Himalayan thank you to everyone involved, but especially the headmaster of Sirkot School, Rajendra Sir who not only gave up his school and classrooms for us, but worked no stop on registration all day. To Kumar and all the staff at the Kalikot Health Post and Birthing Centre for their tireless support both before and during the camps; the Sirkot youth club for being such amazing volunteers and for making sure everyone knew what to do and where to go next and last but not least, the locals from far and near, some who walked for 3 hours or more to reach us.
