What We Do > CMMB People > Dr. Tom Catena...Generalist, Specialist, Tireless

Dr. Tom Catena begins his seven-day work week at St. Mary’s Mission Hospital in Nairobi in the early morning hours.  His commute is short; he lives directly behind the hospital.  He makes his rounds, visiting thirty to forty patients.  Then he heads to the busy clinic where he cares for an average of seventy more patients, or to the operating room, where he performs from ten to twenty surgeries daily. St. Mary’s was founded in 2000 to provide healthcare for Kenya’s impoverished.  Many patients at St. Mary’s cannot afford the costs of Nairobi medical specialists or the expensive medicines they prescribe.  This keeps Dr. Catena’s day interesting.  He treats patients with common diseases, like tuberculosis and malaria, as well as those with rare cancers and other uncommon disorders.  As a result, Dr. Catena is required to be a specialist for many of his patients.  At the end of a long day’s work, he heads to the hospital’s library or to his apartment to do extensive research.  Despite so a demanding schedule, Dr. Catena has served as a CMMB medical volunteer since 1998. He admits that the AIDS epidemic and the lack of healthcare facilities for those who need affordable treatment can be overwhelming.  But he responds that he is in Africa to treat individuals, not the continent.  After nearly nine years of service in Kenya, Dr. Catena is preparing to transfer to a small hospital in rural Sudan.  He is looking forward to learning about a new culture as he continues his volunteer partnership with CMMB, an organization he praises for its efforts to place doctors where they are needed the most.

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