Grace Sudberry Reflection – Quality Diet for Hypertension and Stroke Prevention

Grace Sudberry is a College of Health Professions student at MUSC. She was awarded a Center for Global Health Student & Trainee Travel Grant in the spring of 2023 to pursue a project with OneWorld Health in Masindi, Uganda. View more photos of Grace's time in Uganda in this Flickr photo gallery.

Thank you to the Medical University of South Carolina Center for Global Health for giving me the opportunity, as an occupational therapy (OT) student, to complete my level 1A fieldwork with OneWorld Health in Uganda. In May 2023, I spent a week in Masindi, Uganda, treating patients in outreach clinics with fellow OT and physical therapy students and teachers.

After three flights and over 24 hours of travel, we made it to Africa! The first day we arrived we toured the Masindi Kitara Medical Center (MKMC) and spent the rest of the day organizing and getting ready for the week. While touring MKMC, we met David, one of four occupational therapists in Uganda. He gave us a tour of the rehab unit and shared with us his story of why he became an OT.

For the next five days, we began each day with breakfast and morning prayer with our team before leaving for our outreach site of the day. We would drive about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to our outreach site each day where we would see lines of around 300 people waiting to receive medical care. We would set up inside of the schools and begin providing care. Throughout the day we treated many people with a variety of needs from exercises and stretches to reduce lower back pain to fitting a child with hydrocephalus for a wheelchair. As each day ended, I was tired but excited for the next day of outreach.

For my personal project throughout the week, I was able to educate people on the signs and symptoms of stroke and foods that help reduce the risk of hypertension. Each day we saw patients with high blood pressure/hypertension, and I would make sure that they were educated and given the infographic on strokes.

Something that was quite a surprise to me was the amount of people with extremely high blood pressures. One of the most shocking numbers I saw was 233/89. By communicating with patients, I was able to have a better understanding of the diets and lifestyles in Uganda. Along with educating patients individually each morning while all the patients were lined up outside, I would go walk around with William, the OWH public health leader in Uganda, and talk to groups of people about the importance of diet in reducing the risk of hypertension and the signs and symptoms of stroke.

Over five days of being at outreach clinics, we saw 1,028 patients, of which 268 patients were tested for malaria and 132 were positive. Seven patients were fitted for wheelchairs and 10 others received walkers or crutches. This experience really opened my eyes to the world around me, and I truly loved my time in Uganda. Throughout my career I hope to continue to follow my passion for global missions and someday return to Uganda.