Medical student who assisted with birth has baby named after him












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            * Medical student who assisted with birth has baby named after him
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            An internship at a clinic in Itibo, Kenya is providing student of the CU 3rd Faculty of Me

            with unexpected professional and life experiences. His patients suffer from typhus, malari
            as well as injuries from machete attacks. One HIV-positive mother who he helped to give bi
            after him.

            You are in your fourth year of medical studies and have years of experience in the intensi
            department of the Hospital of the Merciful Sisters of St. Karel Boromejský under Petřín in
            kind of diseases did you treat in Kenya?

            At the clinic we mainly performed minor surgery such as the stitching of wounds following 
            plastic surgery following finger injuries etc. I worked in the clinic with a local nurse, 

            the clinical officer, Josef. Amongst the diseases that we frequently diagnosed and treated
            typhus, malaria, brucella and infections of the breathing passages. HIV/AIDS and anti-retr
            were also part of our day-to-day work in the clinic. On my very first day there I assisted

            which hadn’t even happened once in Uganda, where I’d worked in previous years. The HIV-pos
            birth to a son and named him after me – Lukáš. That was one of my most powerful experience
            How did conditions in Kenya differ from those in Uganda, where you had been on internships

            years?
            The internship at the clinic in Itibo was, for me, a unique opportunity. In Uganda, where 
            Shalom for Uganda (www.shalomforuganda.cz [ URL "http://www.shalomforuganda.cz"] ) organis

            engaged in palliative medicine, and I was present when patients were dying. This summer I 
            Aleš Bárta, who runs the clinic in the town of Itibo in Kenya, which hosts students and do
            primarily, the 1st Faculty of Medicine on internships. This is, for the students, a valuab

            at both a professional and personal level; they are in a totally different environment, wi
            culture, language, traditions, customs, and with somewhat limited options for diagnosis an
            In Kenya the working day starts at eight o’clock in the morning and finishes at five. In t

            there is an accident and emergency room, where we treat acute illnesses, injuries and so o
            situated in a pleasant complex that includes a small park and accommodation for students a
            clinic consists of three buildings – the first one contains the maternity ward and paediat

            the second the future operating theatre and intensive care unit and the third contains the
            small theatre for minor surgery, a bed unit and a clinic with examination room.
            Communication with patients is necessary for correct diagnosis and treatment. How do you c

            Itibo is located in a remote region in south-western Kenya, home to the Kisii tribe. Altho
            language is English, many people, especially in the villages, don’t speak it, you have to 
            at least a few basic phrases of the local language, Kisii. I’m also studying Swahili, whic

            understand a lot, because the local language is based on Kiswahili. People appreciate it w
            them in their native language, even if you only use a few sentences.
            What do you like about Africa, that you keep coming back?

            What I like about Africa is the incredible authenticity, the realness of life. There’s a q
            to Saint-Exupéry: “What would I be if I did not take part? To be, I must participate”; in 
            really like that and the idea is very meaningful. I’d say that in Africa you maybe ‘partic

            much.                                                                                     
            Lukáš Malý is a fourth-year student of general medicine at the 3rd Faculty of Medicine of 
            Karel Boromejský in Prague. In 2012 he spent three months working in an international team
            organisation, MUDr. Veronika Jakubčiaková, to continue their work.