Saving Lives from Israel to Kenya
As a child, Dr. Peter Magabe did not imagine much for his life. He grew up in Kuria, Kenya, where eighty percent of families live below the poverty line. His parents were illiterate subsistence farmers and after high school he worked as a tea picker.
But growing up, Dr. Magabe seemed to excel above his community. Despite a lack of funds, Magabe was always the top of his class and scored well above average on his eighth grade national exams. His future seemed bright.
His ambition to become a doctor was honed out of the insult of always being at the back of the long, winding line at public health clinics, no matter how sick he or his family members were. “I fractured my leg playing soccer and had to wait for hours along with the poor people,” he says. “I resolved to become a physician and to provide quality health care for all.”
As one of 100 out of 300,000 students selected to attend the University of Nairobi medical school’s six-year program, he was also obligated to pay back government subsidization by working as a doctor in Kenya’s periphery. There he gained first-hand knowledge of the crude materials available to doctors in his area and the lack of equipment available to surgeons to stop internal bleeding.
He says, “It’s terrible to watch your patients bleed to death, or to have to remove the womb of a young woman.” In the West, he knew, such crises are resolved by interventional radiology, which uses minimally-invasive procedures to diagnose and treat diseases. He was determined to bring this technology to his patients. But to study interventional radiology, the village-born doctor would have to travel abroad on a fellowship. First he’d have to go through a process of being accepted and then find the funds to support himself, leaving his wife and daughter in Kenya.
Dr. Magabe, a Christian, settled on a program in Jerusalem with Professor Allan Isaac Bloom. “First appearances were of a smart, well-educated and skilled radiologist – didn’t gel with his background,” Bloom says.
But adjusting was not always easy for Dr. Magabe and his colleagues. Things at Israeli hospitals worked differently than those Dr. Magabe has known in Kenya; but everyone was patient and accepting of their new colleague.
Bloom, an Irish descendant of Eastern European Jews who moved to Israel in 1989 was inspired by the way his country and homeland could be the setting where knowledge is passed on to save lives. “It’s a wonderful feeling for me that as a result of Dr. Magabe’s fellowship, lives will be saved, far away in Kenya and the rest of East Africa. A kind of Torah mi’zion.”
But growing up, Dr. Magabe seemed to excel above his community. Despite a lack of funds, Magabe was always the top of his class and scored well above average on his eighth grade national exams. His future seemed bright.
His ambition to become a doctor was honed out of the insult of always being at the back of the long, winding line at public health clinics, no matter how sick he or his family members were. “I fractured my leg playing soccer and had to wait for hours along with the poor people,” he says. “I resolved to become a physician and to provide quality health care for all.”
As one of 100 out of 300,000 students selected to attend the University of Nairobi medical school’s six-year program, he was also obligated to pay back government subsidization by working as a doctor in Kenya’s periphery. There he gained first-hand knowledge of the crude materials available to doctors in his area and the lack of equipment available to surgeons to stop internal bleeding.
He says, “It’s terrible to watch your patients bleed to death, or to have to remove the womb of a young woman.” In the West, he knew, such crises are resolved by interventional radiology, which uses minimally-invasive procedures to diagnose and treat diseases. He was determined to bring this technology to his patients. But to study interventional radiology, the village-born doctor would have to travel abroad on a fellowship. First he’d have to go through a process of being accepted and then find the funds to support himself, leaving his wife and daughter in Kenya.
Dr. Magabe, a Christian, settled on a program in Jerusalem with Professor Allan Isaac Bloom. “First appearances were of a smart, well-educated and skilled radiologist – didn’t gel with his background,” Bloom says.
But adjusting was not always easy for Dr. Magabe and his colleagues. Things at Israeli hospitals worked differently than those Dr. Magabe has known in Kenya; but everyone was patient and accepting of their new colleague.
Bloom, an Irish descendant of Eastern European Jews who moved to Israel in 1989 was inspired by the way his country and homeland could be the setting where knowledge is passed on to save lives. “It’s a wonderful feeling for me that as a result of Dr. Magabe’s fellowship, lives will be saved, far away in Kenya and the rest of East Africa. A kind of Torah mi’zion.”