Today everyone seemed to be in a
fighting mood. 3 seperate assaults. Huge black eyes, busted up eye brows, rib
fractures. Standard brawl stuff really but all in one day.
We also had a woman come in with
something that I can only try to describe because I would at best be guessing
as to her actual condition. She was an older woman (not sure of her age
exactly) but probably in her 60’s who came in with respiratory distress. She
had a scarf wrapped around her neck as that clearly was where he problem was.
Once we unwrapped her neck, the vicinity just filled with a stench. A stale,
almost moldly smell came out. On the L
side of her neck, her check and neck puffed in and out with each rapid breath
she took. Tachypneic to probably ~40 breaths/min but I didn’t count it out. The
L side of her neck actually heaved as the subcutaneous tissue filled with air
and then emptied with each breath. The R side had a small hole where the air
rushed in and out of her neck past what I’ll describe as a fungating mass.
I had never seen anything remotely
like it. When they briefly put the Life-Pak on her to check her vitals, her
SpO2 read 44, and I am inclined to believe that was correct. She had a GCS to
match an oxygen level of 44 that had been there for quite some time. A man who
had come in with her said that she had been like this for almost a week and had
quit responding all together 3 days ago. Blink… blink… blink. She has been like
this for 3 days, maybe more.
I have no doubt in my mind she will
pass by the end of the day. I’m actually a little surprised she hadn’t sooner.
They did administer some oxygen when she got there, but it is undoubtedly not
enough to fix an SpO2 in the 40’s especially with a hole in her neck and
goodness knows how much extra dead space. My best guess… and I might be REALLY
wrong… is that she had some type of CA in her throat and it eroded through the
trachea and neck.
We also saw a small boy who had
fallen off of a motorbike (undoubtedly unhelmeted because I don’t think I saw a
helmet the whole time I was here). He had a bloody nose, fat lip, and lac
through his eyebrow. When he opened his mouth, it was clear that his mandible
was fractured. His 6 lower teeth were completely visible from crown to root and
oriented straight out (crown towards us, roots pointing not into the mandible
but back towards his uvula).
After the hospital, we rushed back
to the hostel for our henna appointment. A woman came to the hostel (apparently we aren’t the first people to
request this) and did each of us in turn. I got both of my feet done as did
Charley, and Caroline got her hand done. The woman who applied the henna was
shockingly quick and accurate. The designs intricate and effortless at the same
time. I actually rode to the airport
with no shoes on to ensure the henna fully dried. Now I’m sitting in the
airport with my feet bandaged in toilet paper (a tip we read online about henna
care) then socks, shoes, and jeans for the flight. No one here is the wiser,
and I can’t wait to get to Egypt to take a shower and see the final product.
Next stop… EGYPT. (Or well… Nairobi,
then Amsterdam, then Paris…. Then Egypt.
But same difference.) J
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