Helping the home away from home
When Arianna Shirk was 7 years old, she composed a letter to her mother telling her she wanted to be a doctor in Africa. Nearly 30 years later, that dream came true and Arianna Shirk is now in her third year as a pediatric hospitalist at AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kenya.
“My parents said at about age 5 I began saying I was a doctor in Africa, and because I came from a family of all pastors and teachers, no one had a clue as to why,” Arianna Shirk said. “Then in second grade, the teacher asked us to write a letter to our parents from 20 years in the future explaining what we were doing. I said I was a doctor in Africa, complete with a white coat and gloves.”
A native of North Carolina, Arianna Shirk and husband, David, a wedding photographer from Atlanta, moved to Hoover in 2007 for her pediatric residency at UAB. Not long after, as a favor, David Shirk shot some photos for a friend and fellow resident to assist with his fundraising efforts for a mission to Kenya. The Shirks, who had spent time in South America and Asia, were also in search of a potential location for international service following Arianna Shirk’s graduation and went on a three-week visit to their friends’ home in Kenya, where Arianna Shirk would serve as a short-term pediatrician.
“That first weekend, all the other pediatricians were away, and Arianna had the worst medical two days ever, including seeing extremely sick kids and delivering conjoined twins,” David Shirk said. “She went to bed after 48 hours straight, and when she got up had a funny look in her eye. I said, ‘You want to come back, don’t you?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’”
The Shirks were hooked, and after Arianna Shirk’s graduation from UAB in 2014, the family returned to Kenya for a two-year post-residency program at AIC Kijabe Hospital through the international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse.
“We had talked and prayed for a long time about where to go but always felt it was Africa because Arianna had fallen in love with the medicine,” David Shirk said. “The children would attend a wonderful international school, and there were so many non-medical things I could do to support her work and the hospital.”
And that’s exactly what happened: David Shirk created the AIC Kijabe Hospital website, kijabehospital.org, and last year the Shirks established Friends of Kijabe (friendsofkijabe.org) for which David Shirk serves as executive director.
“We’re a nonprofit organization that raises money to support the work of the hospital and patients in need plus provide opportunities for people and organizations to engage in the needs of both through donation of services, resources and contributions,” he said.
According to David Shirk, the local income averages about $1,200 in U.S. dollars, and hospital bills often reach far beyond patients’ ability to pay.
“Since April 2016, Friends of Kijabe has raised about $130,000, which goes toward patient care,” he said. “Plus, we always have equipment needs like ventilators and medication infusion pumps. And with about 150 visiting doctors coming in for short periods of time each year, they will donate money and expertise because Kijabe becomes special to their hearts.”
Because AIC Kijabe Hospital also serves as a training facility for medical interns from Kenya and East Africa, many of those 150 visiting physicians spend some of their stay working under Arianna Shirk, who is one of a handful of pediatric emergency trained doctors in East Africa.
“These interns divide their three-month rotation between pediatrics, surgery, OB/GYN and internal medicine, then are sent to rural hospitals all around Kenya where in most situations they are the only doctor,” Arianna Shirk said.
Their two-year term ended in November, and the Shirks returned to the United States to visit for four months with family and friends, including those in Hoover. But that stay ended in March when the family once again departed for Kijabe, this time for a five-year commitment with the mission agency Serge.
As Arianna Shirk was about to resume her duties at AIC Kijabe Hospital, she reflected on why the work means so much to her.
“I was trained in an environment where most anything you wanted or needed was provided, from amazing antibiotics to a state-of-the-art ICU, but these doctors will work in far different environments, and we have to figure out what we can do with what we have,” she said. “But being in a place where there’s incredible need yet an incredible will to make things better — it’s the type of medicine I feel I was born to do. It’s a real privilege, and the hardest fun I’ve ever had.”