COVID-19 Pandemic A View From the Inside

With a view “from the inside,” never in my life as a medical doctor have I felt as prolonged a period of intermittent sadness and grief for the patients that had been admitted during the pandemic. The number of admissions kept increasing in such a short period. Availability of equipped facilities and staff kept diminishing. Medical staff kept consulting from each other on what to do and how to help their fellow colleagues who were stationed in facilities that didn’t have advanced care and even the ones with Critical Care Units were full.

During this period, I had the opportunity to work with Gradian Health Systems in training and equipping facilities with both ventilators and basic critical care knowledge across Kenya. It is when I realized that there was paucity of knowledge in the lower medical cadres. Through networks from Gradian Health System, I learnt of the LRC from Stanford University who had set up various learning sessions to help equip providers with critical care knowledge.

Setting up these sessions in Kenya with the aim of equipping different cadres with basic critical care knowledge was such a milestone for me. Over the one year, I was able to reach out to more than 400 participants across various parts of the country who were very appreciative and this indeed was very impactful to their practice. 

DR. RACHAEL KIMANI