Block 10 PNG ~ Praneel Kumar

1. Praneel Kumar
PNG Health Project
2016 Block 10
The Kiunga hospital placement during
the final year of my medical school at
Griffith University was an eye-opening
experience.
I arrived with preconceptions of
Australia’s closest neighbour to help
prepare myself for the inevitable
culture shock: poorly resourced
hospitals with an even poorer health
literate population who were living
amongst thick rainforests.
PNG did not disappoint.
The Kiunga hospital was fast running
out of much needed antimalarials,
with some patients having to go
without medication until the next
shipment arrived.

2. Praneel Kumar
PNG Health Project
2016 Block 10
Patients had a different cultural
understanding of illness and the
meaning of symptoms, with some
blaming the finger at ‘black magic’ and
seeking retribution against those
blamed for casting these spells.
The town was situated many hundred
of kilometres from the nearest urban
centre, separated by a dense blanket
of green through which the Fly River
snaked a winding course.
But what I had not prepared for was
the resilience of the locals: the young
pregnant woman who was about to
deliver so she walked bare-foot on the
gravel road for kilometres to give birth
at the hospital.

3. Praneel Kumar
PNG Health Project
2016 Block 10
A grandmother with large bowel
obstruction who rode overnight on a
dinghy to seek care at Kiunga. The
nomadic man with urinary retention
who walked for days so we could
relieve his pain.
These stories were repeated day after
day.
I remember feeling undeserving of the
respect locals gave to hospital staff
because too often we could not give
the standard of care I was used to
providing.
I remember thinking that if only some
of the patients lived across the Torres
Strait, they would still be alive.
And I feel that the hardest part was
not living in Kiunga but leaving it,
learning to practice back home,
knowing what I had left behind.

4. Praneel Kumar
PNG Health Project
2016 Block 10
Sincere thanks to:
• QRME staff (including Kaitlyn, Julie and Megan)
for orientation and organising the placement
• Graeme Hill for supervising the students (and
showing us the local gems such as the pub and
swimming pool)
• OK Tedi Mining for arranging flights
• Hope 4 Health for donating medical supplies
through its International Electives Grant