May 16, 2007

  • New Staff 2007 010

    Bertha, Chris, Janet, Febby, Namatama and Anna down front

     

    May 07, 2007

     

    Well, we had five patients admitted to the clinic tonight.  The first one is a pregnant female named Regina who is ready to deliver and lives very far away.  She asked if she could stay until she delivers because she is afraid her labor will start at home and she will be unable to make it in. According to her estimated due date which here is far from accurate, she is two weeks overdue.  With that in mind and her medical presentation, we told her she could stay.

                The second patient is Simon from the farm.  We were awakened at 1:00am to go into his village because he had been hit by a car…had walked home and now was “fainting.”  Sal took the Land Rover and went to the village to find Simon unconscious.  Upon exam, he appeared to have sustained a head injury and definitely had a concussion.  On head to toe physical exam, everything else seemed to be intact.  Sal brought him to the clinic with six family members, started an IV, gave medication and prayed.  The story unfolded….Simon and Joseph had gone to Senkobo on bicycles to the grinding mill to get their maize ground into meal.  They were returning after dark and Simon pedaled ahead because he had to get back for his shift at the dairy.  All of a sudden Joseph heard a crash and commotion up ahead after a taxi had passed him.  When he reached the area of the noise, he found Simon walking aimlessly around dazed and only the wheel of his bike and his bag of meal off the side of the road.  Simon did not recognize Joseph and tried to sit in the middle of the tarmac.  Joseph picked up the wheel and the meal, and grabbed Simon, holding his hand as he guided him back home.  About 100 yards up the road, Joseph found the rest of Simon’s bike all in pieces and not restorable.  Simon was brought to the clinic unconscious that night and remained disoriented and dazed for two days.  I am happy to report that today (May 11…I know it took me a little while to finish the story!), he was discharged, a little sore but in his right mind and ambulatory. 

                The day after Simon was hit by the taxi while on his bicycle, his sister Eunice was leaving work at the orphanage on her bicycle and fell on the way home.  She was brought back to the clinic bleeding from her head and in a lot of pain.  Upon exam, she was found to have a broken rib and facial abrasions on the right side of her face. Wounds cleaned and ribs bound, she was also admitted.

                An HIV patient was admitted just so she would be there for Thursday when we could draw her blood for a CD4 count.  Right now , until we get our lab officially set up, we are only permitted 10 blood draws every two weeks for CD4 counts which we need for criteria to place people on ARV’s.

                A pretty full house already….but then people brought in an elderly woman named  Veronica.  Veronica lives in Kwaleni village and goes to our church here at the farm.  She is also married to the blind man Benedict that I talked about before.  She is the mother of one of the orphanage workers also. Well she had been bitten by a snake on the left leg about four hours previously and the type of snake was unknown.  There is no anti-venom here believe it or not…so we just started an IV and began the protocol of the General Hospital….within 30 minutes, she stopped breathing (enough that Sal and I were checking for her heartbeat and were ready to pronounce her dead).  Our chaplain Julius was there and led the entire room in prayer as they were all on their knees.  She started breathing again and even got feisty and verbally argumentative.  Our hopes were lifted….but two hours later, she died.

                We needed two staff members to stay the night…..As we were working on people and making rounds, Janet said… “This is a hospital!” J