Leah Genn, MD: Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Family Medicine PGY3

Ghana: March 2025

 Medicine can be described as inspiring, humbling, heartbreaking and frustrating, to name a few. My short time at Baptist Medical Centre in Nalerigu, Ghana was all of the above, and often all at the same time. The first night we arrived, during my tour of the hospital, we were called urgently to the bedside of a sick child. She was in extremis, and despite everyone’s best efforts, she passed away in front of our eyes. I will never forget the sound of her mother’s wails as they reverberated around the whole hospital. Had she been in the United States, this patient would have had the opportunity to be intubated and given the time to slowly heal from her florid septic infection. The injustices and inequities were present everywhere one could look at BMC, and, at the same time, the determination and compassion to act and care despite their presence was palpable.

 I soaked in the expertise of all of the Ghanaian staff around me- the OR tech who could have easily been an excellent general surgeon if not for the lottery of birth, the incredible midwives who deftly handled breech vaginal deliveries, the pediatric nurses who could bring deathly ill children back from the brink with few resources, and the public health outreach team who travelled far and wide to provide antenatal and health prevention care to prevent deadly disease spread and bring the healthiest children possible into the world. I also benefitted immensely from the excellent teaching and support of experienced American volunteer physicians who filled in to allow the Ghanaian medical staff a chance for relaxation and further training.

 As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo in 2016-2018, I provided health education surrounding malaria prevention, behavior change and reproductive health. I am honored to have been supported by the Josephson Fund to return to West Africa almost 10 years later as a resident doctor, providing direct medical care to a diverse patient population from the pediatric to surgical to maternity wards. I will forever carry with me the many lessons and skills I had the privilege to learn and experience during my 3 weeks at BMC.