Dr. Jordana Hyman and Dr. John Borowski, a married physician couple from Jerusalem, spent three weeks in India delivering healthcare and medical training to the GPM community. John, a family physician, medical educator, and global health expert, works with Maccabi Healthcare Services as a senior resident trainer in Jerusalem and has deployed with international teams in refugee camps in Africa. Jordana, an Ob/GYN who specializes in IVF, works at Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and as a senior member of Jerusalem’s sexual assault crisis team. The couple, who spent time in both the GPM Shravan Health Center (SHC) in Kalwa and the villages around Ashte where GPM operates, came with their five children aged 2-17, who also participated in GPM activities.
In the Kalwa slum, the doctors delivered a series of health-care workshops to the community on topics such as addiction, common emergencies, contraception, pregnancy health and nutrition, and breastfeeding. Dozens of people – both community members and local GPM medical staff – attended each workshop. John audited the clinic’s main services and led several training sessions for SHC medical support staff on topics including wound care, universal precautions, and malnutrition.
Jordana ran a two-day women’s clinic in SHC in which she treated nearly 100 women for gynecological issues. She also conducted home visits with prenatal and postnatal patients in the Kalwa community, checking on the health needs of mothers and babies, identifying additional opportunities to improve the care of local women, and working to empower them with important knowledge in the area of reproductive health.
“Dr Jordana’s treatment, training and home visits were so well received by the women,” said GPM Healthcare Coordinator Savita Mane who accompanied Dr Jordana during her time in Kalwa. “Her patients were excited to have a woman doctor expert give over her expertise.”
Jordana also trained local staff on patient diagnosis by revising patient intake questions to better assess women’s health. For example, Jordana found that many doctors ask patients how many children they have rather than how many pregnancies they have had. The switch to questions about pregnancies revealed a vital component of patients’ gynecological histories that local doctors may have previously overlooked. Sadly, she discovered a high rate of accidental death in childhood, which highlights an opportunity for GPM to develop programs in the field of child safety in a slum environment.
In the remote village of Ashte, the doctors conducted school health checkups for the 250 children enrolled in GPM Love2Learn educational programs. They tracked growth measurements, screened all children with a focused history, and conducted a brief physical examination. “We found kids with pneumonia, gastroenteritis, intestinal parasites, bacterial and fungal skin infections, bronchitis, anemia, acute and chronic malnutrition, dental caries, and more”, John reported.
The doctors also helped strengthen GPM’s ties with the local Base Hospital/Primary Care Center near Ashte where two physicians and their teams serve more than 55,000 patients. The hospital sees 150 patients daily, including 45 births per month, 70 vasectomies a year, and over 200 tubal ligations per year. Jordana held a gynecological specialist clinic there. “They have no gynecologists on staff, no instrumental deliveries or c-sections. Most mothers weighed under 40kg,” she reported.
John gave a talk for the entire staff on the growing problem of non-communicable diseases, like ischemic heart disease and diabetes. “The lecture was very well-received and hopefully will help with closer cooperation between the government services and GPM,” he reported. John also gave a talk on first aid to the local village men.
John used his breadth of experience running regional medical services in Jerusalem to help evaluate the services of SHC and to create protocols for best clinical practices. He wrote a comprehensive report which is now being studied and implemented by the staff on the ground. He also had a special meeting with the administrator of the clinic where he delivered his findings.
“We are so grateful to Dr. Jordana and Dr. John for offering their invaluable knowledge and experience on behalf of the community here,” said GPM Program Director Thaiza Dias. “Now our job is to use the insights gained in order to improve our health and medical services for the entire community.”
