Accessibility Statement Skip Navigation
  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing
  • Login
  • GDPR
  • Create a Free Account
Return to PRWeb homepage
  • News
  • Resources
  • Contact
When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type.

Searching for your content...

No results found. Please change your search terms and try again.
  • News in Focus
      • Browse News Releases

      • All News Releases
      • Multimedia Gallery

      • All Multimedia
      • All Photos
      • All Videos
  • Business & Money
      • Auto & Transportation

      • Aerospace, Defense
      • Air Freight
      • Airlines & Aviation
      • Automotive
      • Maritime & Shipbuilding
      • Railroads and Intermodal Transportation
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Transportation, Trucking & Railroad
      • Travel
      • Trucking and Road Transportation
      • View All Auto & Transportation

      • Business Technology

      • Blockchain
      • Broadcast Tech
      • Computer & Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Components
      • Electronic Design Automation
      • Financial Technology
      • High Tech Security
      • Internet Technology
      • Nanotechnology
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Semiconductors
      • View All Business Technology

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Financial Services & Investing

      • Accounting News & Issues
      • Acquisitions, Mergers and Takeovers
      • Banking & Financial Services
      • Bankruptcy
      • Bond & Stock Ratings
      • Conference Call Announcements
      • Contracts
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Dividends
      • Earnings
      • Earnings Forecasts & Projections
      • Financing Agreements
      • Insurance
      • Investments Opinions
      • Joint Ventures
      • Mutual Funds
      • Private Placement
      • Real Estate
      • Restructuring & Recapitalization
      • Sales Reports
      • Shareholder Activism
      • Shareholder Meetings
      • Stock Offering
      • Stock Split
      • Venture Capital
      • View All Financial Services & Investing

      • General Business

      • Awards
      • Commercial Real Estate
      • Corporate Expansion
      • Earnings
      • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
      • Human Resource & Workforce Management
      • Licensing
      • New Products & Services
      • Obituaries
      • Outsourcing Businesses
      • Overseas Real Estate (non-US)
      • Personnel Announcements
      • Real Estate Transactions
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Small Business Services
      • Socially Responsible Investing
      • Surveys, Polls and Research
      • Trade Show News
      • View All General Business

  • Science & Tech
      • Consumer Technology

      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Blockchain
      • Cloud Computing/Internet of Things
      • Computer Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Consumer Electronics
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Gaming
      • Financial Technology
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Multimedia & Internet
      • Peripherals
      • Social Media
      • STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Consumer Technology

      • Energy & Natural Resources

      • Alternative Energies
      • Chemical
      • Electrical Utilities
      • Gas
      • General Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil & Energy
      • Oil and Gas Discoveries
      • Utilities
      • Water Utilities
      • View All Energy & Natural Resources

      • Environ­ment

      • Conservation & Recycling
      • Environmental Issues
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Products & Services
      • Green Technology
      • Natural Disasters
      • View All Environ­ment

      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Agriculture
      • Chemical
      • Construction & Building
      • General Manufacturing
      • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning)
      • Machinery
      • Machine Tools, Metalworking and Metallurgy
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Paper, Forest Products & Containers
      • Precious Metals
      • Textiles
      • Tobacco
      • View All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Telecomm­unications

      • Carriers and Services
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Telecommunications Equipment
      • Telecommunications Industry
      • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Telecomm­unications

  • Lifestyle & Health
      • Consumer Products & Retail

      • Animals & Pets
      • Beers, Wines and Spirits
      • Beverages
      • Bridal Services
      • Cannabis
      • Cosmetics and Personal Care
      • Fashion
      • Food & Beverages
      • Furniture and Furnishings
      • Home Improvement
      • Household, Consumer & Cosmetics
      • Household Products
      • Jewelry
      • Non-Alcoholic Beverages
      • Office Products
      • Organic Food
      • Product Recalls
      • Restaurants
      • Retail
      • Supermarkets
      • Toys
      • View All Consumer Products & Retail

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Health

      • Biometrics
      • Biotechnology
      • Clinical Trials & Medical Discoveries
      • Dentistry
      • FDA Approval
      • Fitness/Wellness
      • Health Care & Hospitals
      • Health Insurance
      • Infection Control
      • International Medical Approval
      • Medical Equipment
      • Medical Pharmaceuticals
      • Mental Health
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Supplementary Medicine
      • View All Health

      • Sports

      • General Sports
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Sporting Events
      • Sports Equipment & Accessories
      • View All Sports

      • Travel

      • Amusement Parks and Tourist Attractions
      • Gambling & Casinos
      • Hotels and Resorts
      • Leisure & Tourism
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Passenger Aviation
      • Travel Industry
      • View All Travel

  • Policy & Public Interest
      • Policy & Public Interest

      • Advocacy Group Opinion
      • Animal Welfare
      • Congressional & Presidential Campaigns
      • Corporate Social Responsibility
      • Domestic Policy
      • Economic News, Trends, Analysis
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • European Government
      • FDA Approval
      • Federal and State Legislation
      • Federal Executive Branch & Agency
      • Foreign Policy & International Affairs
      • Homeland Security
      • Labor & Union
      • Legal Issues
      • Natural Disasters
      • Not For Profit
      • Patent Law
      • Public Safety
      • Trade Policy
      • U.S. State Policy
      • View All Policy & Public Interest

  • People & Culture
      • People & Culture

      • Aboriginal, First Nations & Native American
      • African American
      • Asian American
      • Children
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Hispanic
      • Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual
      • Men's Interest
      • People with Disabilities
      • Religion
      • Senior Citizens
      • Veterans
      • Women
      • View All People & Culture

  • Hamburger menu
  • Cision PRWeb provides efficient communication tools to continuously engage with target audiences across multiple online channels
  • Create a Free Account
    • ALL CONTACT INFO
    • Contact Us


      11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday

  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • News in Focus
    • Browse All News
    • Multimedia Gallery
  • Business & Money
    • Auto & Transportation
    • Business Technology
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Financial Services & Investing
    • General Business
  • Science & Tech
    • Consumer Technology
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Environ­ment
    • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
    • Telecomm­unications
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Consumer Products & Retail
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Policy & Public Interest
  • People & Culture
    • People & Culture
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR

Cincinnati Urogynecologist Plans Fundraiser to Improve Women’s Health Care in Tanzania
  • USA - English


News provided by

Cincinnati Urogynecology Associates

Dec 03, 2013, 03:00 ET

Share this article

Share toX

Share this article

Share toX

Dr. Kleeman looks after a young mother following both a cesarean section and emergency hysterectomy. She died later that evening, possibly due to a lack of blood products. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Dr. Kleeman looks after a young mother following both a cesarean section and emergency hysterectomy. She died later that evening, possibly due to a lack of blood products. (Ron Ashley Photo)

Cincinnati, Ohio (PRWEB) December 03, 2013 -- A trip to Tanzania is both emotionally taxing and physically demanding. But it taught Cincinnati urogynecologist Dr. Steve Kleeman where his life’s calling lies.

Kleeman wants to organize donations and medical supplies to improve the health of underserved women in Tanzania.

"If we had had even simple things, like better patient education, more blood products, suction equipment and catheters, their lives could have been saved.”

Post this

Kleeman, director of the Good Samaritan Hospital urogynecology division, a TriHealth partner, spent 14 days in October in Moshi, in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He traveled with Light of the World Charities of Palm City, Fla. to perform surgery and provide general gynecologic care for women in the area. He has also traveled to Honduras and Haiti on previous humanitarian surgical missions.

While the Tanzanian countryside and people are beautiful, medical facilities and care for women are still primitive, said Kleeman. Everything is re-used, from breathing tubes to catheters to sponges and gloves. Flies buzz around in the operating room. Laundry for the entire hospital is cleaned by women who pound it with rocks on a cement table behind the hospital and hang it up to dry.                                                                                                                      
In his first 72 hours in the country, Kleeman experienced three deaths—including a 23-year-old woman and her newborn. It was a heartbreaking situation.

“I was about to leave for the day when I was asked to help in another room after another doctor performed a cesarean section,” said Kleeman. “The baby hadn’t descended correctly through the birth canal. The mother was still on the operating table after the C-section, and was bleeding heavily. I had to re-open her to perform an emergency hysterectomy. We were able to get a hold of some blood products, but I had a feeling in the back of my mind that our efforts might not be enough for her to live. As we worked on the mother, her baby girl, who had been resuscitated, aspirated meconium and died. Unfortunately, the mother died in the middle of the night.

“It’s very hard from a healthcare standpoint,” he said. “We did all we could to save their lives. We used six units of blood-- all the blood we could collect-- but when you lose a tremendous amount of blood, you lose clotting ability. We needed other blood products to help with clotting. If we had had even simple things, like better patient education, more blood products, suction equipment and catheters, their lives could have been saved.”

The following day, another newborn baby aspirated meconium and died. Meconium is infant feces; it can found in amniotic fluid if the baby is under stress during delivery. If the baby inhales it during delivery, the baby can have lung problems or even die.

The infant mortality rate in Tanzania is about 45 per 1,000 babies, according to the CIA World Factbook, compared to a U.S. infant mortality of about six per thousand babies. That is about the same as it was in the U .S. about 150 years ago, said Kleeman.

“There is a tremendous need, especially in the developing world, for the education of patients, as well as for people in the trenches to prevent medical problems,” said Kleeman. “There are an estimated 2.5 million fistulas in women in Africa, mostly due to complications during labor.”

A fistula is the abnormal connection of two body cavities (such as the rectum and the vagina), caused by compression of the bladder and vaginal tissue by the baby’s head. A fistula can develop when the baby becomes stuck in the birth canal. Without medical intervention, the baby will die and the mother can develop significant problems, such as urinary and fecal incontinence. Women who are incontinent are often ostracized from the community.                                        

Not having access to basic gynecological care can cause huge negative health and social consequences in the third world. “If you’re female and married and unable to have children, for example,” said Kleeman, “you are not worth the water in the toilet, as one nun told me. There is a tremendous emphasis and importance on having children and being a mother. Women who cannot have children can be abused by their families and in-laws.”

Conditions at St. Joseph’s Hospital, a Roman Catholic hospital in the archdiocese of Arusha, may be primitive, but they are much improved compared to even five years ago, Kleeman said. He attributes the improved conditions to the nuns at St. Joseph’s—specifically Sr. Urbani, the medical officer in charge of the hospital.                                                        

The hospital was founded in 2001 as an outpatient clinic, and when administrator Sr. Urbani arrived in 2003, she built two operating rooms, but had no equipment in the operating room. A priest living in Florida contacted Light of the World Charities in Palm City, Fla., and the humanitarian agency began to offer missions to Moshi.

Nuns from Our Lady of Kilimanjaro in Moshi held a three-day novena and at the end of the novena, Light of the World was able to provide all the equipment needed to fill the two rooms. At that time, the hospital was able to begin performing cesarean sections and surgeries and take care of people with no place else to go.

“The system seems very functional, even though it is in its infancy,” said Kleeman. “A lot of foreigners and Europeans come in to Moshi to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro or go on safari. The situation there is much more hopeful than Haiti. Many roads are paved and there are basic services like police and other government functions.”

Each morning, Kleeman, a parishioner of St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church in Monfort Heights, a Cincinnati suburb, attended mass at the Our Lady of Kilimanjaro convent. He could look out his window and see Mt. Kilimanjaro. During the weekend he was able to take a safari to the Ngorongoro Crater and Terangire National Park. He saw monkeys, lions and giraffes and even chased a baboon out of his bedroom one night.

There were a lot of Maasai people at the hospital, said Kleeman, and it was thrilling to see someone in western clothing sitting next to a Maasai member in tribal clothing getting treated.

“Just a few years ago, we couldn’t even have performed a C-section there,” said Kleeman. “People just showed up on the doorstep and died. We could save so many people by improving the delivery process in Tanzania. To have a place in Moshi with infrastructure and a proven track record could make a huge difference. We need simple things, like help with lights in the delivery ward and beds that don’t break down as well as x-ray equipment and medicine.”

Kleeman wants to make St. Joseph’s Hospital his springboard to raise money and medical supplies for future Light of the World humanitarian trips. Each surgical trip of 10 people costs about $32,000—for transportation, lodging and medical equipment. There will be a fundraiser for the next mission to Moshi the weekend of March 29, 2014. Sister Urbani will visit Good Samaritan Hospital and speak.

“There are lessons in humility in Tanzania for all of us,” Kleeman said. “The nuns of Our Lady of Kilimanjaro may lack supplies and funding, but they provide compassion and empathy to a great deal of patients. In the U.S., we can provide simple supplies and products to save lives.”                            

Kleeman is a partner at Cincinnati Urogynecology Associates with Drs. Rachel Pauls and Catrina Crisp. For more information about Cincinnati Urogynecology Associates, call (513) 463-4300 or visit http://www.CincinnatiUrogynecology.com.

For information on Light of the World Charities, or to donate, go to http://www.lightoftheworldcharities.org or call (772) 221-4688. Please specify that your donation is for the mission in Moshi, Tanzania.

#     #     #

More about TriHealth

TriHealth is hospitals, physicians and the community working together to help people live better. We provide clinical, educational, preventive and social programs through Bethesda North, Bethesda Butler, TriHealth Evendale and Good Samaritan hospitals and more than 120 other locations throughout Greater Cincinnati. This includes an ambulatory network, physician practices, research division, employer-based health services, hospice care, and fitness and health facilities. Learn more at trihealth.com, Facebook.com/TriHealth, @TriHealth on Twitter, Pinterest.com/TriHealth and at YouTube.com/TriHealth.

Dr. Steven D. Kleeman, Cincinnati Urogynecology Associates, http://www.trihealth.com/hospitals-and-practices/cincinnati-urogynecology-associates/, +1 513 862-4171, [email protected]

Modal title

Steven D. Kleeman, MD
Steven D. Kleeman, MD
Sr. Urbani, medical officer at St. Joseph's Hospital, cradles a child. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Sr. Urbani, medical officer at St. Joseph's Hospital, cradles a child. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Dr. Kleeman and Sr. Clarissa, physician at St. Joseph's Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania.  (Ron Ashley Photo)
Dr. Kleeman and Sr. Clarissa, physician at St. Joseph's Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania. (Ron Ashley Photo)
A young patient waits for her medical appointment. (Ron Ashley Photo)
A young patient waits for her medical appointment. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Sisters Clarissa and Doris and Dr. Kleeman perform surgery. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Sisters Clarissa and Doris and Dr. Kleeman perform surgery. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Laundry workers wash hospital linen by hand, then hang it outdoors to dry. (Ron Ashely Photo)
Laundry workers wash hospital linen by hand, then hang it outdoors to dry. (Ron Ashely Photo)
Dr. Kleeman and staff speak to a patient during rounds. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Dr. Kleeman and staff speak to a patient during rounds. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Dr. Kleeman, right, walks up stairs past Maasai tribesmen. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Dr. Kleeman, right, walks up stairs past Maasai tribesmen. (Ron Ashley Photo)
A cheerful child at St. Joseph's Hospital. (Ron Ashley  Photo)
A cheerful child at St. Joseph's Hospital. (Ron Ashley Photo)
Steven D. Kleeman, MD Sr. Urbani, medical officer at St. Joseph's Hospital, cradles a child. (Ron Ashley Photo) Dr. Kleeman and Sr. Clarissa, physician at St. Joseph's Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania.  (Ron Ashley Photo) A young patient waits for her medical appointment. (Ron Ashley Photo) Sisters Clarissa and Doris and Dr. Kleeman perform surgery. (Ron Ashley Photo) Laundry workers wash hospital linen by hand, then hang it outdoors to dry. (Ron Ashely Photo) Dr. Kleeman and staff speak to a patient during rounds. (Ron Ashley Photo) Dr. Kleeman, right, walks up stairs past Maasai tribesmen. (Ron Ashley Photo) A cheerful child at St. Joseph's Hospital. (Ron Ashley  Photo)

Contact PRWeb

  • 11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday
  • Contact Us

About PRWeb

  • About PRWeb
  • Partners
  • Partnership Programs
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Resources

Why PRWeb

  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing

Accounts

  • Create a Free Account
  • Log in
  • Contact Us

Do not sell or share my personal information:

  • Submit via [email protected] 
  • Call Privacy toll-free: 877-297-8921

Contact Cision

Products

About

My Services
  • All News Releases
  • Online Member Center
  • ProfNet
Cision Distribution Helpline
888-776-0942
  • Legal
  • Site Map
  • RSS
  • Cookie Settings
Copyright © 2025 Cision US Inc.