vassup

(Source: couragehopestrength, via im-grateful-for)

doctorswithoutborders:

Patient testimony of a 24-year-old woman who was shot in the leg and the cheek during the attack on Lekwongole on December 27, 2011, when her three-year-old daughter, her only child, was abducted:

Our village was one of the first to be attacked. Three women, including me, ran with our children—my own three-year-old daughter and two of their boys 10 and 11 years old. We could only carry water with us for the children, no food, no clothes, nothing.

We ran and tried to hide in the high grass when we heard them approaching. But they heard my child crying so they found us three women and the three children. They abducted my child and slit the throats of the two boys in front of us. They told us three women to run—we ran 10 meters and they started shooting. The other two women were killed right away. I was shot in the leg so I fell down. They came over to me and shot me in the head to make sure I was dead and left me there for dead. But the bullet just went through my cheek, so I survived. I crawled to the river to take water and stayed there alone for seven days, in much pain. I didn’t know where my family was or what had happened to my daughter, my only child.

On the eighth day, I couldn’t stay there alone anymore so I used a stick to get up and walked for two hours until I came across neighbors who cared for me for seven days. They told me that my mother was missing. Then they left to inform my family where I was. I was alone again for two days. I crawled again to the river to take water. Then my husband’s brother found me and carried me for three days to Lekwongole. I couldn’t walk, I was so tired, and it was very painful.

Then MSF returned to Lekwongole and drove me to Pibor. I found out the next day that my mother was not just missing, she was dead. I felt so lonely. My mother is dead, yes, but at least if my child was still with me I would be okay. But I’m not okay. I don’t even know what happened to my child.

From my family, 10 people have been killed—four women and six men. From my husband’s family, eight people have been killed. They also abducted my sister’s son, who is six years old. It is very painful because my whole family has been killed. My only child has been taken—I feel so alone and it’s very painful.

For the future, if I get something to work with then I will, but only God knows. People are just stuck here with nothing now.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of extreme inter-communal violence in Jonglei state in South Sudan. More on the situation there.

Photo: © Heather Whalen/MSF

altamiranyc:

Toni Garrn (Women, NY)

THE BAG.

elle:

Street Chic Daily

Valeria wears a vintage coat, Rag & Bone jeans, Dolce Vita shoes, and Chanel sunglasses in NYC.

Photo: Adam Katz Sinding/Le 21ème Arrondissement

sweater + coat :)

doctorswithoutborders:

Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011

8. Stuck in The Middle: Drug Companies Push Up Prices for Patients in Middle-Income Countries

People living with HIV in middle-income countries like India, Brazil or Thailand are facing huge hikes in the costs of AIDS medicines—at a time when the pharmaceutical industry sees these countries as potentially lucrative markets for high-priced drugs, and “blockbuster” drugs go off-patent in wealthy countries.

This year, a number of drug companies confirmed an ongoing trend by refusing to extend standardized price discounts to middle-income countries—something which was previously routine practice. ViiV, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Abbott all now specifically exclude middle-income countries from standardized price discounts for some or all of their drugs. Countries are thus forced to negotiate on a case-by-case basis, which is likely to lead to higher prices.

This move ignores the fact that the majority of people in middle-income countries can’t afford to pay high prices for medicines. To add to the problem, these countries are now losing the support from global health mechanisms like the Global Fund.

Photo: India 2009 © Sami Siva

ucsdhealthsciences:

Radical Surgery Saves Life of Young Mom, California First
Liver Removed, Reconstructed, Re-Implanted

A team led by Alan Hemming, MD, transplant surgeon at UC San Diego Health System, has successfully performed the west coast’s first ex-vivo liver resection, a radical procedure to completely remove and reconstruct a diseased liver and re-implant it without any tumors. The procedure saved the life of a 27-year old mother whose liver had been invaded by a painful tumor that crushed the organ and entangled its blood supply.

“During a 9-hour surgery the team was able to remove the basketball-sized tumor,” said Hemming, professor and surgical director of the Center for Hepatobiliary Disease and Abdominal Transplantation (CHAT) at UC San Diego Health System. “This is a surgery that carries a 15 to 20 percent risk of mortality. In this case, the patient would not have survived if she did not have surgery. This was the only way we could save her liver and her life.”

f’awesome

ssarahahah:

yee

(Source: elle)