January 12, 2017|Simon Walley, Project Manager

The former kitchen and laundry were small rooms in the hospital, as we did not have the funds to build separate facilities and really those spaces should not be directly inside the hospital.  We raised funds for this separate building, in which we built the laundry and kitchen on scale for use in a hospital (larger washing machines, larger appliances etc). It is also capable of being expanded if the hospital gets extremely busy.   The kitchen can also offer a seating area for a cafeteria and sell meals. We also designed and put a little extra into the foundation that we could use the basement for offices, stores, conference hall and a workshop/storage for tools. Upstairs with the laundry and kitchen is a small apartment which will be used as a doctors on call apartment. Throughout the design of this space, we have continued to maintain the integrity of the surrounding environment and whenever possible used salvaged materials (such as in the on call apartment windows) and environmentally sustainable fuels, materials and appliances. 

 Complicated pregnancy ends well at MaterCare's Project Isiolo hospital, St. John Paul II

Issued December 10, 2014:
 

Isiolo, Kenya- A woman, aged 25 years from Merti (a village 225kms from the hospital) para 0+3 gravida came to the MaterCare maternity hospital on March26th, 2014, with a difficult obstetric history of two miscarriages at six (6) and eight (8) weeks consecutively and other complaints. She was diagnosed with previous pelvic infections and severe anaemia in pregnancy and for which she was treated.

On the 7th of May, she came for review and the clinician requested an ultrasound which confirmed the presence of a twin pregnancy at twenty (20) weeks. An haemoglobin done at this time done was 4.8gm/dl. She was given a blood transfusion of two (2) units (pints) of blood.

She was seen again on October 12th, again with severe anaemia and was transfused a second time. She got well and was discharged home on the 16thand advised to be on total bed rest and was put on iron and vitamin supplements.

On November 8th at 3:00PM, the mother came again to the hospital complaining of lower abdominal pains. She was re-admitted and tests revealed her haemoglobin to be HB of 6.9g/dl, 2 units of blood were transfused again and another 1 unit of blood was kept ready since she was at high-risk due to her obsetric history, multiply pregnancies and anaemia and the possibility of post-partum haemorrhage (PPH) after birth.

A caesarean section was performed on November 9th at 10:00AM. She was delivered a live healthy female infant and live healthy male infant, weighing 1800g (3.97lbs) and 1890g (4.17lbs) respectively. Post-operatively, the mother was closely monitored, but she made an uncomplicated and full recovery. The babies were breastfed and have continued to thrive.

-Case report from #ProjectIsiolo, Saint John Paul II Maternity Hospital, Isiolo.