Dr. Stephen Okeyo, Hero
Dr. Michael Clarke is a microbiologist by training but now serves as the head of the University of Ottawa’s IT department. He’s in Kisumu to help TICH write a proposal for funding to pay for a new internet system. Michael wants to visit the CDC in Kisumu to see what system they use. We can go wireless or we can go with the broadband landline system (can you tell I don’t know what I’m talking about?). Anyway, one is dependent on landlines and the other on a satellite, which means we’d be our own internet provider with constant, reliable access.
Michael, Tony (from TICH’s IT) and I ride with Dr. Stephen Okeyo, the head of TICH’s Health Sciences department. Dr. Okeyo also has a private OB/GYN practice with an office in Aga Khan hospital (the very nice, private hospital). It takes us awhile to get to the CDC, not because it’s far away, but because Stephen wants to go by Aga Khan for something--and once we’re there, he has a patient waiting. We then drive to the CDC and pull up to the gate. Stephen’s car seems to be overheating. We can smell the heat and it’s running roughly. The guard at the gate is too slow and the car dies. It won’t start, so Tony, Michael and I climb out and push the car backward (not sure why we pushed it backward) until Stephen pops the clutch and it cranks. We all yell at him to keep his foot on the gas while we climb through the one door that opens. We’re feeling very accomplished until we come to a second gate. And even though we have a piece of official paper, they’re not going to let us enter and the car dies. We get out and push backward again. And again. Stephen is able to drive the car and park it.
The CDC has security. Well, every home, office and building in Kenya and most of Africa has security: guards at the gate/entrance/door, dogs, high fences with broken glass set in cement, padlocks and mazes of barbed wire under walls to discourage climbing over. But the CDC has electric door releases activated with security badges, just like we had at Experian! And they have air-conditioning, not just for the computer center but for everywhere. Their lobby has black leather chairs and huge colorful posters. People wear business clothes. It is quite a treat to enter this well-organized place. Erik, manager of the CDC’s computer center, is from Holland and he shows us their servers and their firewalls. We’re all a bit envious but try not to show it. He’s extremely helpful, provides lots of good technical info, then we return our visitors badges and leave, hoping Stephen’s car will crank now that it’s cooled down. It does.
A couple days ago, a co-worker, Linet, and I are talking. She tells me how she was called to her sister-in-law's house early Sunday morning. Her sister-in-law was pregnant, but like many women in Kenya, she couldn’t afford to go to a doctor to monitor the pregnancy. When Linet arrives at her home, her sister-in-law is in severe pain and Linet sees she’s going into shock (Linet is a nurse by training), so they take her to Aga Khan. An examination reveals the pregnancy to be ectopic and the fallopian tube has ruptured. An operation is needed right away. Linet calls Dr. Stephen Okeyo, who is on a plane just touching down at the Kisumu airport. He rushes to the hospital, examines the patient and arranges to have her moved to a hospital that won’t charge a great deal for the operation. Within an hour, he has operated and the woman is on the road to recover.
When I see Dr. Okeyo after hearing Linet’s story, I’m shaking his hand hard and long and go on and on about how wonderful he is, saving this woman’s life and charging the most minimal of fees because the family is struggling. He says it was nothing, that ectopic pregnancies are the easiest of operations. (Turns out ectopic pregnancies are common in Kenya because of the prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections [STIs]). But here’s a man driving a car that overheats and must be pushed off to start and he’s saving lives. Dr. Okeyo shuffles his feet and looks at the ground when I commend him.
Well, I’m telling the world: "I love Dr. Stephen Okeyo! He’s my (our) hero."
Michael, Tony (from TICH’s IT) and I ride with Dr. Stephen Okeyo, the head of TICH’s Health Sciences department. Dr. Okeyo also has a private OB/GYN practice with an office in Aga Khan hospital (the very nice, private hospital). It takes us awhile to get to the CDC, not because it’s far away, but because Stephen wants to go by Aga Khan for something--and once we’re there, he has a patient waiting. We then drive to the CDC and pull up to the gate. Stephen’s car seems to be overheating. We can smell the heat and it’s running roughly. The guard at the gate is too slow and the car dies. It won’t start, so Tony, Michael and I climb out and push the car backward (not sure why we pushed it backward) until Stephen pops the clutch and it cranks. We all yell at him to keep his foot on the gas while we climb through the one door that opens. We’re feeling very accomplished until we come to a second gate. And even though we have a piece of official paper, they’re not going to let us enter and the car dies. We get out and push backward again. And again. Stephen is able to drive the car and park it.
The CDC has security. Well, every home, office and building in Kenya and most of Africa has security: guards at the gate/entrance/door, dogs, high fences with broken glass set in cement, padlocks and mazes of barbed wire under walls to discourage climbing over. But the CDC has electric door releases activated with security badges, just like we had at Experian! And they have air-conditioning, not just for the computer center but for everywhere. Their lobby has black leather chairs and huge colorful posters. People wear business clothes. It is quite a treat to enter this well-organized place. Erik, manager of the CDC’s computer center, is from Holland and he shows us their servers and their firewalls. We’re all a bit envious but try not to show it. He’s extremely helpful, provides lots of good technical info, then we return our visitors badges and leave, hoping Stephen’s car will crank now that it’s cooled down. It does.
A couple days ago, a co-worker, Linet, and I are talking. She tells me how she was called to her sister-in-law's house early Sunday morning. Her sister-in-law was pregnant, but like many women in Kenya, she couldn’t afford to go to a doctor to monitor the pregnancy. When Linet arrives at her home, her sister-in-law is in severe pain and Linet sees she’s going into shock (Linet is a nurse by training), so they take her to Aga Khan. An examination reveals the pregnancy to be ectopic and the fallopian tube has ruptured. An operation is needed right away. Linet calls Dr. Stephen Okeyo, who is on a plane just touching down at the Kisumu airport. He rushes to the hospital, examines the patient and arranges to have her moved to a hospital that won’t charge a great deal for the operation. Within an hour, he has operated and the woman is on the road to recover.
When I see Dr. Okeyo after hearing Linet’s story, I’m shaking his hand hard and long and go on and on about how wonderful he is, saving this woman’s life and charging the most minimal of fees because the family is struggling. He says it was nothing, that ectopic pregnancies are the easiest of operations. (Turns out ectopic pregnancies are common in Kenya because of the prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections [STIs]). But here’s a man driving a car that overheats and must be pushed off to start and he’s saving lives. Dr. Okeyo shuffles his feet and looks at the ground when I commend him.
Well, I’m telling the world: "I love Dr. Stephen Okeyo! He’s my (our) hero."
posted by Cindi at 10:33 AM
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