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I feel like all of the days I have
spent in A&E (accident and emergency) have been so intense, and today was
no different. The medical officer that I had been working with, Dr. Bule, was
not there today. From what I have gathered, a new crop of medical officer
intern started at the hospital last Wednesday. They worked with the MOs for 1
week, and now they are on their own. Kinda a brutal way to learn, but I guess
it is just how it works here.
So today just me and Dr. Abu held
down A&E. I think he was very thankful to have me there, and I was thankful
to have more to do than usual. We had a drunk patient (you gotta love the
patients who manage to be wasted at 10 am) who had multiple lacerations to his
head. There were at least 4 separate lacs that combined to about 30 cm of
laceration length. Plus, his ear was split along the cartilage. Sewing him up was
pretty brutal for everyone involved because he kept thrashing about, I think
more because he was drunk than he was in pain. He was given diazepam and local
anesthetic but you can’t reason with drunk. He was already restrained to the
bed, but we had to get 2 other patients (!?!?!? I know, right!) and a police
officer to help hold him down to keep him still enough to sew. Still a moving
target, and we didn’t have the benefit of staples to make this go faster. Dr.
Abu (poor thing… I can’t imagine being left in the emergency department on my
own 1 week into internship) started to sew. I helped him trouble shoot this one
most complicated stellate lac, and then he turned the needle driver over to me.
I think I’ve had more opportunity to suture than he has and was more than
willing to shorten this ordeal for patient and everyone involved. Still took
FOREVER.
There was also a patient with a
crush injury of his index finger. It was so mangled that the only real option
was amputation. (Poor Dr. Abu… he was going to have to figure that one out
after I headed home. Never done an amputation before.)
We also saw a 27 year old patient
who was referred to the hospital from an outside hospital with a 2nd
and 3rd CN palsy. He had a brain tumor… not sure which kind… that
had been allowed to keep growing because his adoptive parents (he was a former
orphan and street child, so quite lucky to have been adopted in some regards)
didn’t have the 0.5 million shillings for the operation. It was so surprising
to me to see that this had been going on for 5+ years (since he had some pretty
notable symptoms), and he just didn’t have any real access to curative
treatment.
After the hospital, the staff of
Elective Africa held a BBQ dinner for me and kindly allowed me to invite
Caroline and Charley over for it. It was wonderful! Yummy food that included
chicken burgers, grilled fish, chicken and sausages, and salad. Plus, they put
little cubes of watermelon in the drinks. (This is something they learned from
some Swedish students they had a while back, and definitely an idea I’m going
to have to steal. We just ate and relaxed in and by the pool. Incredible way to
send me off for my safari. Can’t wait!!!
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| Dolas grilling food. Yummy! |
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| Us eating... AKA no one looks good stuffing their face |
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