Yukon Kuskokwim Delta Regional Hospital

This is the hospital where I work as the clinical dietitian. The hospital is a 30 bed facility which serves patients in the YK delta. The YK delta is the size of Oregon, and has 55 Native villages. (More on the villages later). Our services are pretty impressive for an area as remote as Bethel, but we are quite limited as you can imagine. The hospital has an emergency room, obstetrics unit, pediatric unit (9 beds), inpatient unit, and outpatient clinics. We do not have an Intensive care unit. If someone is very ill, they are flown to Anchorage.

As I said, Bethel serves about 55 villages. These villages each have a small village clinic where health aids provide medical care. These health aids receive training in Bethel and do everything from birthing babies to giving immunizations. When a sick patient arrives at the village clinic, the health aid must follow a manual to identify the patent's problem. The health aids then call the doctors in Bethel if needed. Alaska is the only state that has these health aids.

Bethel, Alaska

This is the first time we saw Bethel back in June, 2005. Bethel is located 400 miles west of Anchorage on the Kuskokwim river. No roads lead in or out of Bethel, so the only way out is by a jet plane. About 6,000 people live here and most of the people are Yup'ik Eskimos. Eric and I wanted to move to Alaska, and Bethel was the best place for both of our careers. Eric was a new pilot and was able to get on with a bush flying service right away, and I landed a job that paid for the move.

I must admit that moving to this area from the lower 48 was tough. We learned as much as we could before we moved to Bethel, but we moved without seeing it first. Eric and I just jumped out there and did it. Many people don't understand how or why we could do it. That is just fine with us. Eric and I had wanted to move to Alaska for a long time, and we are very glad we did it. Alaska is very proud of it's culture, and traditions and by living in this remote part of the world, we have developed such a sense of respect for this land and it's people. It is truly amazing. The people and their lifestyle are something we will never forget. We have met some of the most interesting, real people and have experienced truly unique experiences. I have decided to start this blog to share our pictures and stories with family and friends.