Ducking inside the boat's tiny main cabin, the patients hand tattered medical cards documenting previous visits to a crew member. Medical problems related to unsafe drinking water and malnutrition are common, but the boat's permanent crew of seven, including one doctor and three paramedics, is equipped to handle a wide range of ailments. So are infections brought on by working barefoot for hours in fields, and living and eating in close quarters with inadequate sanitation systems. For everything the on-board crew can't treat, the facility depends upon Rotary Volunteers. Since the clinic opened, dozens of Rotarian physicians have traveled from as far away as Canada, Japan and the United States to serve in the remote backwaters of Bangladesh.
Most volunteers take several weeks off from their private practices back home.
I probably saw more disease in that month than I saw in 30 years of practice. But you just have to be flexible, and be prepared to be resourceful. A patient displays the personal medical card that documents his visits. The bright lights that illuminate the tiny examination area reveal that there's just enough space for the patient to recline while Shafi circles adeptly around the chair. But he is such a busy man that the cramped quarters don't seem to faze him at all.