We wanted to tell you briefly about 2 interesting patients we have seen. One was an 8 year old boy, whose mother came in because she was concerned about how he was walking. It was not clear what the problem was until the exam. His calf muscles were hypertrophied and he walked with a lordotic gait. It turned out that he had a fairly advanced case of Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. The next case was a 13 year old boy whose father was concerned that when he was angry, his face turned blue. On exam, this child was markedly cyanotic, with clubbing of his hands, and had an O2 sat of only 77% on room air. He most likely has a progressing congenital heart defect. We referred him to a cardiologist, but the nearest one is 3 hours away and the family is uncertain if they can afford to go. Although Peru does have some national healthcare there are very limited resources for patients like this that have chronic and such serious diseases, especially the Quechua people. They are the descendants of the Incans, but are now the poorest people group in Peru.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Peru 2
We wanted to tell you briefly about 2 interesting patients we have seen. One was an 8 year old boy, whose mother came in because she was concerned about how he was walking. It was not clear what the problem was until the exam. His calf muscles were hypertrophied and he walked with a lordotic gait. It turned out that he had a fairly advanced case of Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. The next case was a 13 year old boy whose father was concerned that when he was angry, his face turned blue. On exam, this child was markedly cyanotic, with clubbing of his hands, and had an O2 sat of only 77% on room air. He most likely has a progressing congenital heart defect. We referred him to a cardiologist, but the nearest one is 3 hours away and the family is uncertain if they can afford to go. Although Peru does have some national healthcare there are very limited resources for patients like this that have chronic and such serious diseases, especially the Quechua people. They are the descendants of the Incans, but are now the poorest people group in Peru.
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Happy Happy Birthday...Happy Happy Day!! Loving you guys and missing you!!!
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