CHER Assistant Research Professor, Dr. Kristan Elwell has been involved in establishing a new and much-needed pediatric surgery wing at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi; it is the first center of its kind in the country. The Mercy James Institute for Pediatric Surgery and Intensive Care will help the hospital double the number of surgeries performed on children each year, and provides a four-bed intensive care unit. It will also become a training center of excellence for southern Africa, training more doctors to help make a difference in the lives of Malawian children.
Michigan State University physician, Terrie Taylor’s “groundbreaking research identified that children who die from cerebral malaria do so from massively swollen brains that compress the brain stem and cause the child to stop breathing. (New England Journal of Medicine, 2015). Taylor is using a separate $8.4M NIH grant to identify the first-ever treatments for children with cerebral malaria. The research will be conducted in Malawi’s first pediatric surgery and intensive care unit built by Raising Malawi, an organization founded by pop legend Madonna.”
Dr. Elwell, along with colleagues at the College of Medicine, University of Malawi, was involved in conducting a formative research study to inform the development of consent procedures
for parents and guardians of children participating in pediatric intensive care research at the new unit.