A Picture Can Narrate One Thousand Words

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Healthcare with no Limits

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Bekhal was fading fast. The 25-year old woman, trapped in her native Kurdistan in northern Iraq, had unknowingly taken counterfeit medications, given to her by doctors, and as a result the Leukemia in her bones continued to spread. Standing frailly in a doorway of her family home, Bekhal listened as her father told me about the investigation into the phony drugs. Now, only days after being given the medication in a government hospital, doctors informed Bekhal that recovery within Kurdistan was impossible. Facing few options, the father outlined his plan to sell his modest house to travel with Bekhal to India in search of a last chance to save his only daughter. When I returned to my native Kurdistan to administer heath aid to refugees, I encountered countless individuals like Bekhal who were suffering unnecessarily because of a lack of government quality control and drug safety. In Kurdistan, years of war, oppression and sanctions imposed on...
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Leadership Series VII: Pandemic Created Combat-Like Trauma for Pharmacists

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When I was the CEO for the SC Pharmacy Association, I would visit about 20 pharmacies a week. As I was waiting to meet with the team at each pharmacy, I watched each member of the community pharmacy team run from one end of the pharmacy to the next to answer the phones that did not stop ringing with calls from patients as well as providers, service the drive through customers, arrange for minute clinics as well as patient counseling, and take care of dozens of patients waiting in line for COVID-19 vaccines and/or testing.  Just like other healthcare providers, pharmacists and their team members are under an immense amount of stress, pressure, and demand to serve the needs of their patients. I watched them work selflessly to meet the needs of their patients.  Throughout the pandemic, overrun hospitals were often referred to a combat zones, and healthcare workers as frontline soldiers. Research shows that those comparisons were probably warranted. As they faced fatigue, death...
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A reality from Hawler

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Add caption This photo was taken in 2004 in Hawler. Please note the sign behind him.   A man his age should be telling stories to grand kids at home, not sell rosaries on some sidewalk :( This photo taken in 2010 of the same guy in the same exact spot in Hawler I asked if he remembered me buying rosaries from him in 2004? After a long conversation, I learned more about his personal life.  I decided to buy a few more rosaries, however, he refused to accept anything in return despite his poverty!
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