Dr. Paula Dhanda, guest speaker and Toni Stewart, LWCC president at the club’s March 6 meeting.

Lakeport >> The Lakeport Women’s Civic Club (LWCC) hosted gynecologist Dr. Paula Dhanda at its regularly scheduled meeting and luncheon at the Riviera Country Club Restaurant on March 6.

Not only is Dhanda known here in Lake County for delivering thousands of babies and caring for woman in the community, she is dedicated to providing the best medical care possible for women in all parts of the world.

During the meeting, Dhanda spoke about the nonprofit organization, Worldwide Healing Hands, that she founded and directs in order to reach out to women in depressed areas of the world. She and a team have traveled to Chad, Africa, Nepal and Haiti working with patients and doctors, introducing procedures and practices to improve the health care for women and babies.

She has received numerous awards in recognition for her work including the 2014 Unsung Heroes of Compassion accolade presented by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Lake County is truly Tricia Frazer is the publicity chair for the Lakeport Women’s Civic Club.

Dr. Paula Dhanda is a practicing physician in Kelseyville. She is the founder of Worldwide Healing Hands. She may be reached at 279-8733 or visit http://drspecialtycare.com/ or http://www.worldwidehealinghands.org/.

Published in the Lake County Record Bee: Dhanda speaks to Civic Club

My daughter’s first mission to Nepal

1. You are unique in all the world. There is only one you.

2. Be a leader, not a follower.

3. Be Kind. Always.

4. Love yourself first.

5. Be yourself. Love what you love. Do what you want to do. Don’t tolerate any judgment.

6. Everyone has flaws. No one is perfect. Not even your parents.

7. The number on the scale you step on is not a reflection of your integrity.

8. Carbs are not your enemy. Like everything else in life use moderation.

9. Find at least three or four vegetables you can tolerate. Lettuce cannot be one of them.

10. The point of exercising is to be healthy. That’s it. So do it often. You do not have to be good at it or even like it.

11. Wear sunscreen, even in the winter. Skin cancer is not a fashion trend.

12. Read. A lot. No matter what genre.

13. Do not take medical advice from the Internet.

14. If it doesn’t feel right, then it probably isn’t.

15. There is no shame in waiting for love, no matter what age you are.

16. Never chase after a partner who does not love you. You cannot force them to do so.

17. Your heart will be broken. That does not mean you are broken beyond repair.

18. No one has the right to touch you without your permission. Regardless of whether you are dating them or are married to them. They need your consent first. And if someone touches you inappropriately, hit them. You have my permission.

19. We will have the sex talk. Multiple times. And it will be in the car, with the doors locked and you cannot run away from me. Please just listen. Don’t be embarrassed. This is important.

20. You do not have to go to college right after you graduate high school. Take a gap year and explore the real world.

21. Also, you don’t have to know what you want to do with your life when you enter college. College is the time to explore and figure it out.

22. Chase your dreams. Don’t let anyone tell you they are not worth it or you can’t achieve them.

23. When you have an opinion, always have a reason for it. “Because” is not one.

24. Put thought into all gifts.

25. Try on red lipstick, no matter what the assistant at the counter says about your “coloring.”

Dr. Paula Dhanda is a practicing physician in Kelseyville. She is the founder of Worldwide Healing Hands. She may be reached at 279-8733 or visit http://drspecialtycare.com/ or http://www.worldwidehealinghands.org/.

Published in the Lake County Record Bee:  25 things I tell my precious daughter — For parents and girls

“Support of humanity through charitable work and help to the underprivileged.” 

I was privileged to tour the facility and visit their demonstration operating room which was so advanced that it looked like something from the future.  I was so impressed with this innovative company that I was inspired to tell you this story.

After our mission to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, I came home with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy because of the inability to help women with treatable and preventable medical problems due to the lack of equipment.

I was even more determined than ever to help women and in my despair I wrote a letter to Mrs. Sybill Storz in Germany requesting a donation of surgical instruments to help alleviate these problems in women.

Less than a month later I received a phone call from Suzanne at the Karl Storz company saying that Mrs. Storz was so moved by my letter and she would like to donate the surgical equipment we needed.   I was overwhelmed by their generosity and impressed with the professionalism of how the company put this request into action.

This surgical equipment has traveled around the world with me and has been instrumental in alleviating suffering in many women by correcting treatable medical problems such as abnormal bleeding.  Hysteroscopy is a procedure where a tiny camera that is introduced through the cervix to look inside the uterus.  This procedure is used to diagnose and treat problems of the uterus such as abnormal bleeding.  It has saved women from having unnecessary hysterectomies.

This technology also gives women a choice in their family planning by enabling us to perform sterilization procedures in women who have completed their childbearing.  Hysteroscopic sterilization (Essure) is a simple, effective and safe procedure that does not involve cutting, hormones or general anesthesia.  This procedure has been available in the US since 2002.

I am deeply grateful to this wonderful company for their support of women’s health worldwide.

Dear Mrs. Storz,

Nowhere in medicine are global disparities more striking than in surgery.  I did not realize this until I began volunteering on medical missions in developing countries.

When I was in Chad in 2009, there was an anesthesia machine but no compressed gasses to make it functional, so we were unable to administer anesthesia even though the equipment was present.  There were no functioning ventilators and no oxygen.  At night, we performed emergency surgeries with head lamps as there was not enough electricity for lighting.

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, I shared a suction machine with the surgeon in the adjacent operating room. We passed the suction hose through a window between the two rooms. Everything that was intended for single patient use was sterilized and reused.  The operating room light was held together by a large bandage and, in fact, it had been repaired by a visiting orthopedic surgeon.

Here’s a little about me. I am a gynecologist and surgeon with 25 years of experience. Four years ago, I started to organize medical missions. Last year, I formalized this effort into a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization called Worldwide Healing Hands. We partner with other groups and take surgical teams to underserved areas of the globe to care for women and children with little or no access to care.

This October, we will be traveling to a geographically isolated area of Eastern Nepal to perform surgery and train midwives. There has not been a gynecologist in this area for about three years, so women will be traveling from the surrounding areas for care. We have obtained permission from the Nepalese government to bring together midwives from other areas of Nepal for a week of intensive training.

We often encounter women with undiagnosed abnormal uterine bleeding and we have nothing to offer them. A diagnostic hysteroscope would be invaluable in our efforts to help these women.

Many women do not want to have more children but have no contraceptive options. In fact, their lives are endangered because they are at increased risk for postpartum hemorrhage with the increasing number of births. An operative hysteroscope would enable us to perform hysteroscopic sterilizations and prevent maternal deaths.   When a woman dies, her children are endangered and her community suffers without her hard work and positive influence.

The purpose of this letter is to request an in kind donation of a portable hysteroscope set-up that will be used on multiple missions. I have used your fine instruments for years and recently purchased a set for my surgery center. Your gift would change many lives for the better.

With your help, we can turn this vision into a reality. Thank you in advance for your consideration. Please feel free to call me to discuss this.

Sincerely,

Paula R. Dhanda, MD, FACOG, FACS

I am just as frustrated as you are about your drug formulary plan. I evaluate your needs and prescribe the most effective medication for your condition. I make every effort to check your plan to see what is on your formulary but this is often not available or changes frequently.

When I get notification from the pharmacy that the medication I prescribed is not on your formulary, very often they offer no alternatives. If an alternative is stated, many times it is a medication that does not meet your needs. For example, I may prescribe estrogen for vaginal dryness and the response I receive will recommend a medication for osteoporosis.

Sometimes I get a letter that is usually four pages long and begins by saying that you have received a temporary supply of the medication I prescribed. Next, there are statements about how the drug either isn’t on your formulary or the quantity exceeds the plan limits. None of these letters contain a reference to an online formulary physicians can access to compare the covered alternatives.

So what do I do as your physician? These are the steps we take:

1. My staff calls you to let you know that your prescription has been denied (you probably already know this and have been waiting at the pharmacy) and ask if you have access to your formulary.

2. My staff calls the pharmacy to see if they have the formulary and I evaluate the alternatives. Often I have to switch you to some older and less effective medication because it is cheaper.

3. Then, my nurse calls you back to see if you want to pay for the medication or try a less effective medication that is covered by your plan.

4. Next, I have you try the less effective medication and hope that it works. If it is not effective, my staff will spend a lot of time calling your health plan and being put on hold for twenty minutes listening to bad music.

5. The alternative is filling out cumbersome forms in hopes that you will get your medication. This is most likely denied unless you have tried the less effective and cheaper alternatives.

It is difficult to believe that these “Megapharms” do not have a more efficient way for physicians to prescribe your medications. Why do they waste paper and postage on letters that say what is not covered without providing us with a list of medications that are covered? I will make an educated guess that the purpose of this complicated maze is that they do not have to pay for your medication.

Yes, dear patient, I am just as frustrated as you are.

Dr. Paula Dhanda is a practicing physician in Kelseyville. She is the founder of Worldwide Healing Hands. She may be reached at 279-8733 or visit http://drspecialtycare.com/ or http://www.worldwidehealinghands.org/.

Published in the Lake County Record Bee: Healing Hands: Frustrations with formularies

Photo credit Nathan DeHart

KELSEYVILLE >> “How far would you walk for health care?” With that question, Worldwide Healing Hands (WHH) invites individuals of all ages to take part in the second “Hike 4 Healing” on April 25.

In addition, WHH seeks sponsors for the event and for hikers. Sponsors will be recognized in print and broadcast releases about the event as well as acknowledged on information available at the hike. All donations will help support the WHH’s goals and missions to provide quality healthcare to women and children, especially those who do not have access to such care.

Hike participants will traverse the Wright Summit Trail on Mount Konocti, a little more than six miles round-trip and an elevation gain of 1,600 feet. Entrance fee for the hike is $25 per person. There is no charge for children under the age of 12 to participate. Participants may register on EventBrite (https://eventbrite.com/event/15794115625/)

The Hike 4 Healing was launched last year as a fundraiser for Worldwide Healing Hands’ missions, according to Hike 4 Healing coordinator Anthy O’Brien, a WHH board member and supporter.

Led by Dr. Paula Dhanda, an obstetrician and gynecologist based in Kelseyville, WHH provides healthcare services to women and children in underserved areas of the world. WHH teams have traveled to Nepal, Chad and Haiti to deliver health services. WHH volunteer medical teams have also provided free health screenings to homeless in Lake County.

WHH recently sent a team of volunteers to Haiti for a week-long mission in conjunction with Project Medishare. While in Port-au-Prince, the WHH doctors and nurses conducted cervical cancer screenings and treatment for dozens of Haitian women and provided training to Haitian physicians and midwives.

The WHH Board of Directors is considering the next mission and is proposing Uganda as the location.

“We will need funds to acquire equipment and supplies for a clinic in Uganda,” said Dhanda. Doctors, nurses and staff who accompany Dhanda on the WHH missions are not paid for their time; they donate their services to WHH. However, there are other costs incurred, mainly for much-needed supplies and medicine, according to Dhanda.

“Please join us on our Hike 4 Healing this year so that we may help many more women and children with the healthcare they need and deserve,” O’Brien says. The hike is not a race nor competition, she added. “Your prize is the satisfaction of completing the hike and helping a worthy cause.”

For more information about the Hike 4 Healing, call (707) 279-8733. Visit WHH’s website, www.worldwidehealinghands.org, to read more about the organization.

by Susan Stout

SIGN UP FOR THE HIKE

Published in the Lake County Record Bee:

Hike supports Healing Hands

The risk of these preventable communicable diseases is far greater than the risk of the vaccination.

How do we balance public safety and personal choices? In a well functioning democratic society, everybody has a responsibility to accept a social contract in order to protect its citizens from preventable disease. The recent movement not to vaccinate children jeopardizes the public well being. If the majority of people held absolute freedom of individualism above what should be an equal responsibility to the community there would be chaos.
Vaccines don’t just protect you.

We do not accept a neighbor’s right to allow his home to become a health hazard affecting his neighbors and children. The same is true in the case of refusing to vaccinate a child. It is not just the freedom of the individual at stake when you refuse to vaccinate your child. Your child is too young to exercise his or her own judgment and is subject to your own misguided views on vaccination.

All our children and members of the community are at risk from your decision.

What happens when some people don’t get vaccinated?

Even a small number of unvaccinated people can make it much easier for a disease to spread.

There is a concept in science called “herd immunity.” It refers to the idea that a lot of people need to get a specific vaccine to stop a disease from spreading. Vaccinated people essentially act as a protective barrier to outbreaks, since diseases can’t pass through them and infect others.

This barrier helps protect some of the most vulnerable populations: infants under 12 months of age are too young to be vaccinated and are more susceptible to infection; the elderly, who have a higher risk of death; and people with compromised immune systems, who can’t receive.

Vaccinations are safe.

There is no link between vaccination and autism! The only study to make that conclusion was falsified and IMMEDIATELY retracted by several of the authors. The doctor who authored the small study had is medical license taken away. The journal retracted the study after they concluded that the authors had manipulated the numbers. That did not stop the lead author, whose son is autistic, from continuing to preach his falsified findings to the public. The anti-vaccine movement is based upon a false premise.

Vaccines can cause minor side effects such as redness and swelling at the injection site, just like any other medicine. Serious complications can occur, although this is a rare occurence. The risk of these preventable communicable diseases is far greater than the risk of the vaccination.

Not vaccinating can be deadly or disabling.

Measles, which is a highly contagious disease, used to cause death, blindness, deafness and severe brain injury to children until vaccinations became available. There were so many children with severe disability caused by measles and other childhood illness that there were schools for the blind and deaf in each state, until the success of childhood vaccinations closed their doors. Helen Keller became blind and deaf after suffering a communicable childhood illness.

Vaccines are among the most cost-effective health interventions ever developed. In the United States we have essentially eradicated childhood diseases such as small pox, polio and measles through vaccination. The rest of the world is not so fortunate. Many young physicians have never sees a case of measles or polio.

Despite these great strides, there remains an urgent need to reach all children with life-saving vaccines. One in five children worldwide are not fully protected with even the most basic vaccines. As a result, an estimated 1.5 million children die each year—one every 20 seconds—from vaccine-preventable diseases. Tens of thousands of other children suffer from severe or permanently disabling illnesses. In 2013, there were 145,700 measles deaths globally – about 400 deaths every day or 16 deaths every hour.

We live in a country where you do have the freedom of choice to vaccinate your child but I believe it is our obligation to protect the most vulnerable members of our society by choosing to vaccinate our children.

This column is no substitute for seeing your own health care provider. You can read about all of my escapades on my blog http://www.drpauladhanda.com/

Dr. Paula Dhanda is a practicing physician in Kelseyville. She is the founder of Worldwide Healing Hands. She may be reached at 707-279-8733 or visit http://drspecialtycare.com/ or http://worldwidehealinghands.org/

Published in the Lake County Record Bee:
Healing Hands: Individual freedom vs. public health — A physician’s perspective

I was honored and quite surprised as I never saw him express much interest in my work. When I returned from my recent mission to Haiti I saw a large wrinkled up manila envelope sitting on the kitchen counter. I was busy unpacking and noticed the envelope still sitting there untouched. Finally, I asked what it was and he said it was just something for me from his teacher. Opening it I found it was full of money, mostly coins and wrinkled up bills. It added up to $106 and change. There was also a note from his teacher saying “you are raising a fine young man.” I was so moved by the generosity of his classmates and the actions of my son. I wondered what he had said to inspire his class. He is a young man of few words and he said “I just told them what you did”.

Of all the accolades and awards that I have received, this is the most moving one. There is nothing more rewarding than watching your children grow into fine young adults and learning from your example. Your children are observing everything you do good or bad so this is a valuable lesson in mindfulness.