Saving Lives in Uganda - Part 2

[Note: This is Part 2 of the blog post from 2024 when I had first visited Dr. Schiff and his team. GF]

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The young mother was not doing well. 

Living in a remote village in the Jinja region of Uganda, she had given birth to a baby just a few weeks before, but she was feeling weakness on her right side of her body and had fevers.  She was under the care of a traditional healer (sometimes referred to as “Shamans” or “Witch Doctors”) who had instilled cuts on her body as part of the treatment, making her condition worse.  Dr. Schiff and his team examined her and thought she most likely had a stroke as well as an infection. He immediately arranged for an ambulance to come to the remote village and get her.  Empty space in the ambulance was filled with 4 other babies from the village who were also in need of medical attention – 3 had fevers, one had a discharge around the umbilical cord which wasn’t cut close to the body, one had pustules on the skin, and one had very yellow eyes, meaning it had jaundice early in life, a condition that can lead to brain damage if it isn’t treated. 

Once they arrived at the hospital, the young mother was scheduled for a CAT scan, plus treatment for an infection and high blood pressure.  But then the traditional healer called the hospital, demanding that the young mother return home.  When we last heard, the young mother was getting ready to leave the hospital early to comply with the healer’s demands.

Portrait of the King of Busoga

I just returned from Uganda, where I was working on Part 2 of my story on Dr. Schiff's work for Saving lives in Uganda (which will be the feature in next month's blog).  The final day of this trip was an added bonus, as I got a chance to meet a king and create his portrait.  I can die now. :-)

For more context about how this happened, let's go back in time a little bit.  Last year, while hosting our first photo safari in Kenya, I was showing participants how to shoot dramatic portraits using wireless flash.  Here's an example (as always, click on any image to view larger and sharper):

And the behind-the-scenes shot showing how it was done using only one flash: