Needed - A Rural Oxgenator in Zambia

by Bill Nelems

Twenty percent oxygen everywhere, yet hardly an additional molecule to spare!

Professor Jellis is coming from Lusaka to provide his two-monthy Orthopaedic surgical care for the physically challenged children at Cheshire Home in Mongu, Western Zambia. Over a two day span more than 30 patients will require oxygen in support of their general anaesthesics at the Lewanika General Hospital.

The pre-operative ward is bustling as Ronny, one of the OR theatre nurses prepares the children for surgery. He is assisted by Leah, Alex, Gabby and Kelsey, student nurses from University of British Columbia - Okanagan. The operating room theatre, resplendent with anaesthetists and nurses, is ready to roll. Prof Jellis works fast and insists on a rapid flow through of patients, not always the case here.

Four oxygen cylinders stand at the entrance to theatre. Two are empty, two are 'filled' with oxygen, although the pressures have not been measured to determine the adequacy of fill. To achieve this modest oxygen supply for the Orthopaedic patients, elective surgery had been cancelled for a week prior, and none was available for the ICU now made functional by OkaZHI's Kim East with her teaching of November 2010.The last 3 of 30 patients go to surgery after the oxygen has been exhausted.

The delivery trucks normally used to bring oxygen cylinders from Lusaka, 600 kilometres to the east, stand idle. There will be no oxygen available for next week. The challenges in delivering health care to this rural part of Africa are myriad, but the lack of an adequate oxygen supply conjures up the metaphor of a system suffocating in more ways than one.

The Lewanika General Hospital serves as the referral centre for all of Western Province. An urgent and sustainable solution must be found - now. The lives of hundreds of patients, and over time, thousands more are at stake. I discussed this situation with Silumelume Kufunduka Mubukwanu, a sixth generation direct descendant of Mulambwa, the first monarch of the second dynasty of the Barotse Kingdom.

"Just call me SK!" SK, a Rotarian, a former Zambian Ambassador to India, Nigeria, United Kingdom, and South Africa, now retired to his ancestral region in Mongu, listens with concern to the oxygen deficiency saga.

"SK, can you form a public trust to develop this idea?"

"Yes, but only if it serves a noble cause."

"Would the purchase of an oxygen generator, owned by the trust for supplying product the the local hospitals be feasible and noble?"

"Yes. We could guarantee the needed oxygen to all villages in Western Zambia. There is an acute shortage of oxygen for industrial usage throughout the country. We could sell any excess supply over and above our needs and turn the profits back to revitalize health care here. What capital investment would it take?"

"$150,000.00"

This project could save so many lives, create work and bolster local morale. This could be an example of social entrepreneurism at it's best, potentially exported to other sites.