Kyla Arama delivers live-saving care in West Africa

Every day, Washington state nurses dedicate themselves to providing exceptional care in their own communities. But for Kyla Arama, a neonatal ICU registered nurse at the University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) and WSNA member, patient care doesn’t stop after she clocks out from her night shift in the NICU. For the past 13 years, Kyla has also worked to improve the health of patients thousands of miles away from Seattle.

As a volunteer for the nonprofit organization The Bridge of Hope, Kyla has helped create a self-sustainable medical system in Sierra Leone, a developing country on the southwest coast of West Africa. As Head of Medical Programs, Kyla partners with local healthcare providers in Sierra Leone to implement a framework for preventative care and encourage healthy habits through education.

Right before COVID-19 reached West Africa in February 2020, Kyla and five Seattle-area nurses (including WSNA members Casie Lamp and Rachel Murray) traveled to Sierra Leone to help deliver care and establish the country’s first snakebite treatment center.

We recently sat down with Kyla to learn more about her volunteerism.

What inspired you to start volunteering?

When I was 16 years old, a nonprofit organization that does work in West Africa visited my church [The Bridge of Hope]. My mom, who is a NICU nurse at Swedish Issaquah, wanted to go and provide medical assistance at a bush medical clinic there. She brought me along with her on the trip, and I loved it. After that experience, I developed a passion for health care in developing countries.

I later went on to attend nursing school at the University of Washington and started taking annual trips to Sierra Leone through The Bridge of Hope.

Tell me about your work establishing the first snakebite treatment center in Sierra Leone. How did that come about?

In addition to providing curative and preventative medical care in the two clinics we’ve established in the country, we also regularly meet with community members to ask what health needs they have. During one of my trips there, many of them mentioned they don’t have access to medical treatment for snakebites — which are very common in Sierra Leone and oftentimes deadly if left untreated. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) named snakebite poisoning as a neglected tropical disease in 2018.

When I returned to the U.S., I began researching how to treat snakebites. That’s when I stumbled upon Asclepius Snakebite Foundation (ASF), which is a Seattle nonprofit that addresses the snakebite crisis across the developing world. Almost two years ago, I partnered with ASF to create a snakebite training program for the health care workers in our clinics in Sierra Leone. In the beginning of 2020, we traveled to the country to help establish a new snakebite clinic and directly train the workers on how to best treat snakebites.

Since February 2020, the clinic has treated 51 snakebite patients and saved countless lives in the process.

What is the most challenging aspect of treating snakebites in West Africa?

Most snakebites in Sierra Leone occur in bush villages, where treatment is often sought from a natural healer in the community — which won’t effectively treat snakebites. It can be frustrating sometimes, but we must remain mindful that Sierra Leone has a completely different health care system than the U.S. As an organization, we want to honor and respect the local culture, while encouraging health outcomes that benefit the community.

Having access to good, sustainable antivenom is also a challenge to find in developing countries because they often don’t have access to cold storage or refrigerators. The best antivenom we could obtain was a reconstitutable powder we imported from France.

What’s the most rewarding aspect?

Seeing our staff members in Sierra Leone provide exceptional care to snakebite patients. They are so passionate about this work and love being able to provide snakebite treatment for members of their community. That’s really the ultimate goal of our work: to ensure health care workers there are trained and equipped to deliver long-term, sustainable health care. They are still in regular contact with us and let us know whenever they get a new snakebite case. They’re crushing it!

With so many health disparities in West Africa, it feels good to know we’re finally making a dent in something.

What’s next for you and The Bridge of Hope?

Since Africa has closed its borders to outsiders due to COVID-19, we won’t be going back this year — and probably not in 2022. Unfortunately, WHO predicts that developing countries most likely won’t have widespread access to a COVID-19 vaccine until 2024.

In the meantime, we’ve reached out to UNICEF and offered them use of our bush clinics when the vaccine arrives. Our onsite medical staff is trained to administer vaccines, and we have a generator to provide the continued power needed to store and refrigerate vaccines.

Since water access is also a huge problem in Sierra Leone, we are currently working on getting more wells drilled throughout the country to encourage more handwashing and limit the spread of COVID-19.

What advice do you have for other nurses who want to become more involved in a cause that’s important to them?

When I became Head of Medical Programs at The Bridge of Hope, I didn’t know if we would be able to meet the needs of the community in Sierra Leone. But I learned that if you put the time and energy into the work, and find the right partners to help you, anything is possible.

If nurses see a problem in health care, whether here in Washington or in a developing country, we have the power to fix it!