Collaborations in Cuba Support Hurricane Recovery

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Ellen Wilson

After any sort of disaster, recovery efforts must be carefully planned and coordinated. Sending the wrong kind of assistance can overwhelm an area that is already struggling – a case of inappropriate assistance causing its own kind of damage.

Hurricane Sandy hit the city of Santiago, the second largest city in Cuba, just a few days before reaching the eastern seaboard of the United States. The impact was devastating, and due to the country’s limited resources and the continuing US blockade against it, recovery is difficult.

In our ongoing efforts to help Santiago and the surrounding communities recover from the devastating storm, Global Links is working closely with PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) and MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba) to determine what is essential to hurricane recovery and ongoing healthcare.

Our recent shipment to Gustavo Machin Psychiatric Hospital in Santiago, which had to be evacuated after Sandy, included beds, mattresses, and other medical supplies. A concurrent shipment was filled with beds and medical supplies for distribution to several hospitals and healthcare centers near Santiago.

Much of the medical care in Cuba is provided by a network of primary care centers, so items such as syringes, gloves, and the biomedical equipment necessary for a basic exam are just what is needed.

Please read more about our program in Cuba, and consider making a donation in support of hurricane recovery, or any of our programs that provide real assistance to the Cuban people.

Volunteers sort and pack syringes and needles – an essential tool for basic medical care.

Teens’ Community Service Project Helps Medical Professionals Overseas

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Ellen Wilson

“I know that wearing scrubs makes my job easier,” said Rose Lomis, who works at Pleasant Valley Veterinary Clinic. “They’re loose and comfortable, so you can bend and move. And they are easily cleaned, so they’re more sanitary than wearing street clothes.”

In addition, they signify that the wearer is a medical professional. “Wearing scrubs differentiates you,” Rose added.

Chloe, left, and Alana, right, with the results of their scrub collection for Global Links.

Because Rose knows the value of scrubs in her own life, she immediately saw the value of Global Links Scrub Collection when it was written about in the Post-Gazette last year, and brought the program to her daughter Alana’s attention. “We’ve always believed in community service,” Rose explained.

Alana and her friend Chloe Smith, both about to graduate from Peters Township High School, set to work organizing the collection. They posted a notice in Pleasant Valley Veterinary Clinic, and Chloe’s mother Debbie Smith put up a flyer in the office dentist Dr. Wayne J. DeBartola, Jr. Within a short time, the group had over 200 sets of “gently used” scrubs. “Some still had tags on them,” Rose said. girls holding sign

Collections like the one Alana and Chloe spearheaded provide real assistance to healthcare communities whose budgets do not allow for the purchase of scrubs. Global Links has an ongoing need for these medical uniforms for our partners in resource-poor communities – not just for the sanitation and convenience, but for the professional look they impart.

Breathe Hope

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Ellen Wilson

In Guatemala, in the rainy season, breathing problems increase. “Almost every other child and adult are having some problem with ‘gripe,’ which is a word the Quiché use for colds, runny noses, coughs, flu, and asthma,” wrote the nurse practitioner at the ASELSI clinic in Chichicastenango, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. The clinic had recently received nebulizers and other medical materials from Global Links, and the nurse practitioner told us about one family who came to the clinic frantic with worry about a child having difficulty breathing. The clinic loaned them one of the new nebulizers from Global Links. “When they returned the nebulizer the family was so thankful and just kept saying thank you over and over again.”

Global Links was able to provide two nebulizers for this community because of Breathe Hope, our program that collects nebulizers from individuals in the United States, cleans and inspects them, and sends them with all necessary supplies to underserved communities such as Chichicastenango.

Asthma is on the rise throughout Central and South America, due to deteriorating environmental conditions, dust from unpaved roads, and smoke from cooking fires. Nebulizers in these communities are in short supply. In the United States, these life-saving breathing machines can often be found in the back of the closet, under the bed, no longer needed but not able to be returned for reuse.

May is Asthma Awareness Month. For information on how to support Breathe Hope, click on our facebook tab, which has all the tools necessary to make a vital difference in the life of a child – and a community.

mother nebulizing child

We Are Our Volunteers

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Kristi Dellinger

We often say that we couldn’t do what we do without volunteers. After all, they pack more than 95% of the medical supplies we send out. This year, to celebrate National Volunteer Week April 21 – April 28, we thought we’d try to show you what that looks like. For example, last year we donated 1,348,034 individual gloves – both surgical and exam gloves – an essential medical supply that we take so much for granted in the US we rarely even think about them. But at Global Links, volunteers check every box of gloves for condition and date of expiration, count them, pack them up and label the box for donation. We rely on our teams of volunteers – their willingness to do hard work, to keep an eye on the details, to make it right! – and we bask in the reputation we have overseas for the good condition and appropriateness of the materials we send. We really couldn’t do that without our nearly 2000 dependable, dedicated volunteers. They make us who we are.

Check our facebook page this week for more examples of what Global Links volunteers do.

Find out more about our volunteer program here.

“Grinding poverty and the low status of women and girls”

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Kathleen Hower

women awaiting fistula repair When I look at this photo of women awaiting surgery to repair their fistulas, I find it difficult to imagine what they’ve been going through. Chronic incontinence, which leads to constant skin irritation, social isolation and rejection even by the people who are supposed to love them – it boggles the mind.

Obstetric fistulas – holes between the vagina and bladder or the vagina and rectum – are caused by obstructed labor, one of the big risks of unattended deliveries. Poverty that leads to malnourishment, and cultural practices such as pregnancy at an early age, when the pelvis is simply too small to accommodate pregnancy and a healthy birth, can lead to obstructed labor.

Here’s how it happens: a young, small woman – a girl – goes into labor at home. She either has no access to healthcare, or is not permitted to seek it. Contractions push her baby’s head against her pelvic bone for hours or days, causing trauma, dead tissue, and eventually a hole – a fistula. Her body is broken, her baby is usually dead, and because of her inability to bear children and her constant smell caused by leaking urine or stool, she is rejected by her husband.

According to The Fistula Foundation, “the root causes of fistula are grinding poverty and the low status of women and girls.” The World Health Organization says that more than two million young women in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa suffer from the chronic incontinence and devastated dignity caused by fistulas.

The problem is a complex one to solve. There are doctors and even entire hospitals dedicated to repairing fistulas. Since 2007, Global Links has been providing surgical sutures to Dr. Leon Mubikayi, who works to repair fistulas and train his colleagues in Democratic Republic of Congo. We gave him another donation of sutures earlier this spring.

Our program to provide basic medical supplies to resource-poor communities is another part of the solution. If women have an equipped health center in their community, and a trained birth attendant, fistulas can be avoided. And our baby bag program helps – by encouraging women to seek medical care.

patients after fistula repair with Mubikayi These measures are effective, but solving the problem of fistulas will take many people, many organizations, and a global change of attitude. Progress is slow and the steps are halting. But for the women shown in this second photo, standing with Dr. Mubikayi after their fistulas have been repaired, every step matters.

Walls Coming Down! Construction is Under Way at New Global Links Headquarters

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Angela Garcia

The walls are coming down! After twenty-three years of building an organization, it’s ironic that we are so excited to see a building being partially demolished. But after months of eager anticipation, demolition has begun on at our soon-to-be headquarters in Green Tree.

Global Links outgrew our current facilities several years ago and was working inefficiently because our operations were spread out in three different buildings. Shortly after purchasing our new building, our warehouse operations, where most of our hospital surplus inventory was processed and loaded for donation to partners, were consolidated and moved last fall.

Since then, we’ve worked with a team of planners, architects, and contractors to determine the best way to renovate (after all, the greenest building is one that already exists!) the space allocated for the new volunteer center. We want our work space to showcase the entire scope of our operations for visitors and volunteers, while allowing for simultaneous projects and optimal work flow. After years of working around challenges that included spontaneous ceiling leaks, limited work space — the lunch table became the work table, then the meeting table, and then back to a sorting table, all in a span of 6 hours — non-functional freight elevators, work areas at the mercy of Mother Nature’s heating and cooling whims, and a walk-up entry that became known as the Global Links work-out plan (and deterred prospective volunteers from joining our efforts), we have been working to design a well-appointed volunteer center that will allow us to continue growing and welcoming more volunteer involvement.

So, as walls are torn down to open up the former vitamin processing plant to make way for a welcoming hub of volunteer activity, we look forward to sharing updates of this exciting local move with a global reach.

Kathleen Hower knocking down walls at new Global Links headquarters

CEO and co-founder Kathleen Hower knocking down barriers to an inclusive and welcoming volunteer center. Warehouse and Logistics Manager Dave Davis looks on.

World Health Day: Making Blood Pressure Measurement Available and Affordable

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Ellen Wilson

A doctor in Haiti checks the blood pressure of a pregnant woman – an essential step to prevent preeclampsia.

At Global Links, we frequently talk about how having access to a basic blood pressure monitor can save the life of a pregnant woman and her baby by diagnosing preeclampsia in time to treat it. Having access to this piece of basic medical equipment is life-saving. But monitoring blood pressure is an essential component of primary care for everybody. According to the World Health Organization, one in three adults has high blood pressure, which increases their risk of heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure, and can cause blindness. High blood pressure doesn’t have symptoms that would alert a patient to the condition – a blood pressure check is essential for detection and prevention or treatment.

Global Links has been supporting the Cuban healthcare system with donations of medical equipment since 1994.

April 7 marks the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, and this year, WHO is emphasizing high blood pressure, and the importance of monitoring and treating it. In addition to promoting steps everyone can take to keep their own blood pressure at a healthy level, the WHO lists these goals:

to raise awareness of the causes and consequences of high blood pressure;
to provide information on how to prevent high blood pressure and related complications;
to encourage adults to check their blood pressure and to follow the advice of health-care professionals;
to encourage self-care to prevent high blood pressure;
to make blood pressure measurement affordable to all; and
to incite national and local authorities to create enabling environments for healthy behaviours.

One in three adults suffers from high blood pressure which, if untreated, can lead to devastating health complications.

For the next week, Global Links is raising awareness of the health risks suffered in resource-poor communities for the lack of basic blood pressure equipment, and taking steps to address the problem. By donating $25 to Global Links, and designating it for our Blood Pressure Project in the comments section of our donation page, you are enabling the donation of one blood pressure unit and improving the health – saving the lives – of people in resource-poor communities around the world.

Garifuna doctor Luther Castillo uses a blood pressure monitor from Global Links to check one of his patients.

Global Links donates an average of 300 refurbished aneroid blood pressure units to hospitals and clinics every year. Each one can save the lives of countless people. Please help us improve health in resource-poor communities around the world with a donation to our blood pressure monitor project. We can make a difference, with your help.

Supplies from Global Links at work in Bangladesh

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Ellen Wilson

Dr. Christina Cirucci of Premier Women’s Health, Sewickley, has been taking medical supplies from Global Links to Memorial Christian Hospital in Bangladesh since 2005. On her recent trip, the sutures and blades for skin grafts arrived just in time, as she illustrates in this report.

I recently went to Bangladesh to provide medical care at Memorial Christian Hospital. Bangladesh is a very poor country where good health care is limited. I had the privilege as an OBGYN physician to provide medical care to women. I saw women in the clinic, took care of women inpatients and performed surgeries, mostly C-sections and hysterectomies. One of the big needs of the hospital is suture. It’s impossible to do surgery without suture. Global Links donated many boxes of suture to Memorial Christian Hospital, which I brought with me in my luggage. After I had been there a short time, I was told that we really needed to get the Global Links suture unloaded because they were running very short of suture!

OR staff hold up a box of sutures from Global Links – received just in time for a hysterectomy.

Sutures from Global Links were put into use immediately.

I performed much needed hysterectomies and C-sections with suture from Global Links. This would not have been possible without Global Links’ Suture Donation Program.

Global Links also provided dermatome blades to Memorial Christian Hospital. Dermatome blades are used to obtain a sample of skin for skin grafting. In the U.S. these blades are disposable, but at Memorial Christian Hospital they have to sterilize and reuse the blades. With multiple uses, however, the blades get very dull and therefore the graft is not as good. The hospital told me that they desperately needed dermatome blades, and Global Links provided them as well as much needed skin carriers. When I presented the dermatome blades and skin carriers to Dr. John Tripura (one of the national doctors) and the OR manager, Sotindra Dey, they were elated, knowing that future skin grafts would take well and have a good result!

John Tripura and OR Manager Sotrinda Dey are pleased with the new dermatome blades from Global Links.

Thank you to Global Links for providing these much needed supplies!

Christina A. Cirucci MD

Waiting for Dialysis in Jamaica

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Ellen Wilson

Imagine being 8 years old and having to wait in a hospital for days until the dialysis materials that keep you alive are available. Even worse (for me): imagine having your child’s dialysis postponed for want of supplies.

Global Links has just received word that the donation of dialysis solution and supplies we shipped to Jamaica in January, our first donation of 2013, has cleared customs, reached the hospital in Mandeville, and some were administered to an 8-year-old patient whose life and health were jeopardized by the lack of these materials.

International shipping is rarely a straightforward business. The vagaries of weather, customs, and unforeseen fees often slow things down. “It has been a long and exhaustive process,” wrote Blossom Laidlaw, a long-time friend and volunteer who has been helping this Renal Health project in Jamaica, “but in the long run the patients will benefit tremendously.… Your input has certainly helped to ease the burden of many, in particular our special patient in Mandeville Hospital, who uses these fluids.”

We don’t know anything more than that the patient is an 8-year-old boy, and that hospital staff feared for his life. “A nightmare,” is how Blossom described his wait in the hospital.

Events like this one crystallize for me why we do what we do. This donation is part of a multi-year collaboration with Jamaica’s Renal Health project, and collecting, sorting, labeling, packing and shipping the heavy fluids is a long and labor-intensive process involving many volunteers and staff members. Many thanks to Blossom, as well as Progressive Grocers, the Sing Chin Family, Econocaribe and the Jamaican Ministry of Health for making this donation possible.

This is a large collaborative project, and every partner pulled together to make it work. Meanwhile, the life of one 8 year old hung in the balance. And then, we learned from Blossom that the supplies had reached him in time.

Those who love this boy would move heaven and earth for him. We moved some boxes of dialysis supplies – there is no question that it was worth the effort.

Please support our work in Jamaica.

The Face of Life-Saving Collaborations

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Ellen Wilson

Dr. Julio Brossard restores the future. A pediatric neurologist in Cuba, he operates on young patients with brain tumors when there is no other option. Global Links has been supporting Dr. Brossard’s practice for years. Recently he carried some supplies home from Global Links, including absorbable hemostat – a gauze-like material essential in controlling bleeding during neurosurgeries — and used it in procedures on two young children, Ernesto and Yanet.

Child who had brain surgery using supplies from Global Links.

Global Links provided supplies for Ernesto’s brain surgery. He has already been discharged from the hospital.

“Global Links was present in the OR,” he wrote when he sent us photos of the children, adding that their families and the entire OR team sent thanks.

The goal of Dr. Brossard’s visit to Global Links was to better understand what types of materials we are able to provide to support the specialized procedures that his hospital is performing. The Cuban healthcare system is one of the best in the world, but it cannot acquire some of the material resources that are abundant in the United States because of the embargo. During Dr. Brossard’s last visit, he identified several items from our inventory that would be critical to resolving complicated cases, and because this specific material is so valuable, and so scarce, Dr. Brossard carried it home in his suitcase. His department is the only one in all of eastern Cuba to have the material – but thanks to Global Links and the long relationship we have forged with Dr. Brossard, he had it – and Ernesto and Yanet are the direct beneficiaries.

Yanet, whose brain surgeon used supplies from Global Links. Her prognosis is good.

These are just two of the many patients – thousands, around the world – who have benefitted from Global Links’ ability to match needs and capacities of healthcare providers around the world with our surplus materials. Whether it is basic sutures for a c-section, sophisticated screening machines for mammograms, or rare materials that facilitate complex neurosurgeries, there are uncounted numbers of people alive today because of Global Links and the collaborations we have with people like Dr. Brossard. The program works. It’s great to see photos of these two young children, whose futures have been restored to them because of a relationship between a Cuban doctor and a non-profit in Pittsburgh.

Please support future donations of medical aid to Cuba.