"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - CN W.W. Hastings Doctors Help in Afghanistan

"Dr. David Gahn and Dr. Brandon Taylor pause while on duty in
a surgical room at the Rabia Balkhi Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The two were selected to participate in the United States Afghanistan Health Initiative."

TAHLEQUAH, OK — Two doctors from Cherokee Nation W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah have spent time overseas in a humanitarian effort to assist in the stabilization of healthy mothers and infants in a foreign country.

Dr. David Gahn, an OB/GYN and Dr. Brandon Taylor, a pharmacist, were part of a team of doctors from the United States chosen to travel to Kabul, Afghanistan, recently to train medical professionals in the Rabia Balkhi Women’s Hospital. The program is part of the Afghanistan Health Initiative, established in 2002 through the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Team members have included representatives from Indian Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.

“Americans are humanitarians, and we understand you cannot have a stable government without good health care,” said Gahn, who has been on several of the humanitarian missions to Afghanistan. “Healthy women, healthy mothers and having healthy pregnancies are very important in having a stable society.”

When the initiative began in 2002, Afghanistan had one of the highest infant-mortality rates of any nation in the world, and had the highest maternal-mortality rate ever recorded. HHS worked with the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) to help implement a national health strategy and improve the quality of maternal and neo-natal health care for Afghan mothers and their babies.

In the official Memorandum of Understanding between HHS and MoPH, it was outlined that the groups would promote cooperation in areas such as disease prevention and control, public health protection, biomedical and behavioral research and research training, health services and health policy research. The cooperation allowed for both groups to exchange ideas, information, skills and techniques, and to collaborate on problems of mutual interest.

Activities have been focused on Rabia Balkhi Hospital since it is the largest maternity hospital in the city of Kabul, the Afghan capital. The hospital averages nearly 50 births every day, a figure which exceeds between three and four times the number of births at the busiest American hospitals.

Gahn said when they first arrived at the hospital, conditions were so chaotic that it was possible for women to enter the hospital, have a baby, and leave without receiving medical assistance and without providing a birth record for the baby. Thanks to the implementation of proper procedures through the health initiative, 100 percent of the women now have a retrievable medical record.

While Gahn was busy working with physicians at the hospital, Taylor was actively assessing the pharmacy program at the hospital and helping train the pharmacists to assist in lowering the high maternal and infant mortality rate at the hospital.

“The pharmacists were very eager to learn,” Taylor said. “On my first day in the hospital I noticed a diagram of the kidney’s nephron and after making a comment was immediately asked to give a presentation on the class of medication that exert their effect in the kidneys called diuretics.”

Both Taylor and Gahn agree that the program is beneficial to both countries, and that the Afghan people were very pleased to have American doctors helping at the hospital.

“I asked the chief pharmacist what he had been hearing in the community regarding the American presence in the hospital,” Taylor said. “He said they knew there were Americans there, and they were happy because they knew that the patients were getting the best care.”

Gahn was very pleased at the progress that has been made since the initial visit in 2002. He said during the first visit, the hospital had no electricity or running water and had raw sewage in the hallways. Now, it is considered the best hospital in Kabul, and offers good health care to the people of Afghanistan.

While the Cherokee Nation is reimbursed for the salaries and travel from HHS, the tribe does provide some training supplies and administrative support for the project, for which both doctors showed great appreciation.

“For me, it is great when some of my patients at Hastings tell me how happy they are that a Cherokee Nation doctor was selected to go be part of this project. Cherokees love helping others, and I think it makes them proud,” Gahn said.

Taylor, who is a Cherokee Nation citizen, agreed and added that it made him appreciate the things he has and gets to be a part of here in the U.S.

“It was an honor to represent the Cherokee Nation and the United States. As I returned home to my family, I felt extremely grateful for the many blessings that I have received being a citizen of the United States of America,” Taylor said.