Anne Merriman, ‘Mother of Palliative Care’ in Uganda, Dies at 90

Africa|Anne Merriman, ‘Mother of Palliative Care’ successful Uganda, Dies astatine 90

Working arsenic a doc successful Singapore successful the 1980s, Anne Merriman saw firsthand the agony that poor, terminally sick patients suffered aft being released from the hospital. Treatment for pain, she discovered, was a substance of economical privilege, overmuch similar entree to wellness care.

The outgo of intravenous morphine was prohibitive for galore of her patients. So she came up with an alternative: powdered morphine.

At her behest, a pharmacist astatine the National University of Singapore, wherever Dr. Merriman taught, developed a look with conscionable 3 ingredients: morphine powder, h2o and a preservative. The outgo was a fraction of that of intravenous morphine. And the simplicity of the look meant that, dissimilar aesculapian cocktails containing sedatives and alcohol, it could beryllium rapidly adjusted and mixed for each diligent to instrumentality home.

For Dr. Merriman, a erstwhile nun who would spell connected to grow palliative attraction successful the processing satellite — introducing a replicable, culturally flexible exemplary of hospice to Africa, treating astir 40,000 patients and grooming immoderate 10,000 aesculapian professionals crossed 37 countries connected the continent — that tiny innovation was, she aboriginal wrote, “a crippled changer.”