3rd World Medicine

Dr. Dorey, while out on a medcap, found two patients who have the medical anomaly shown below. I tried googling the actual name for it, but can't find it.

I did read a site about podamacy, a divination guide used in Persia (Iran) to read feet. It says if you have one toe larger than typical for that toe that the energies of that toe are more abundant and exaggerated. Each toe has a different energy. The little toe has to do with fear and trust. 4th toe to attachment and love, etc. It says if your first toe is large, you tend to be a big talker but not everything you say is based on reality.

According to this site, if you have a big second toe then you tend to have big vision but can be self opinionated and like to be seen in charge.

I hope we didn't distrupt the gods plan for this 16 year old boy and another 16 year old girl who both suffer from this condition.

They both had surgery on Wednesday to correct this medical condition. I took care of him post op, but his foot was wrapped and I couldn't get a good picture of the orthopedics final outcome.

The orthopedic doctor said that this condition is very rare and definitely is not something we would see in America on someone this age because the condition is repaired by the time a child is 6 mo old.

Yesterday, while on liberty, I went and visited Dr. Dan's clinic in Dili. He is an American doctor praciting here in Timor Leste. I didn't get enough information about his history (how long he has been working here or his medical background) but we did talk long enough to hear his thoughts on how to improve health among the Timorese people. His suggestion: educate the women, which goes against many Southeast Asian customs. As women are educated and empowered with knowledge, they can educate their families and villages and then improvements will begin to take place. He said at this time TB and HIV is rampant. Many are dying from malaria, Dengue fever and the mortality rate during child birth his huge. There are only midwives here in Timor to assist with delivering babies and any small complication can have devastating consequences.