Today we were all exhausted and slept in way too late and spent a lot of the day being very lazy. Around noon we went over to the other house for brunch, and just hung out reading books and playing cards.
We got around in the afternoon to go to Makeni and exchange money, go to the post office, and get some things from St. Mary’s. We had just gotten into the car when Dr. Erdi got a call from Dr. Conteh, who is the first on call doctor today, asking for her help with a patient. We all rode over to the hospital, and decided to follow Dr. Erdi as she assessed the situation.
The woman that Dr. Conteh wanted help assessing was complaining of tingling in the hands and feet, as well as acute pain in the chest that would come and go. The acute chest pain felt like it was her heart, and she kept asking if she was going to die, and wouldn’t answer Dr. Erdi’s questions honestly. She was saying that the pain and spasms started “just now,” which is African for “it started this morning,” but Dr. Erdi wanted to know what time it started, in case it was a heart attack. Once we determined that she was having some odd reactions because she’s taking heart meds that you shouldn’t take if your hypoglycemic, and they never tested to see if she was, they put her on IV fluids and made sure to get her blood sugar within a good range. It seems like Dr. Erdi has to do everything though, because Dr. Conteh just watched as Dr. Erdi ran over to the dispensary to get the right drugs, then ran to maternity ward to see if they had any because the dispensary was out, then back again. And all this time there was a woman hoping to be admitted, standing there waiting. She had a giant infected wound on the entire side of her face, and it was dripping and oozing all down her face. When I mentioned to Dr. Conteh that she was waiting, in hopes that he would realize he was being lazy and see her, he basically told me that he couldn’t be bothered, and that her case was chronic (yea, chronic my butt) and that he had other patients that could die any minute that he needed to attend to. But then, rather than attending to these ‘other’ patients that might die any minute, he sits down and watches Dr. Erdi run around seeing patients.
After Dr. Erdi found the right medication and started the patient on it, she noticed that a mother was waiting to have her little boy be seen. Rather than wasting her breathe trying to make Dr. Conteh understand that he could have admitted this boy while she was seeing the woman, she just shook her head and took him to children’s ward. When she examined him, she diagnosed a bowel obstruction, as he had not defecated in four days but had been urinating. She ordered IV fluids and antibiotics, and for a surgical team to be ready in an hour in a half.
In the mean time, Dr. Erdi still wanted to take us to town to exchange money and get her package, and go to the supermarket. We rode in and pointed out the big stuff, the University, the supermarket, the clock tower, and so on. When we parked on the rode near the money traders, they found us right away and came right up to our car to trade with us. One of them was a guy I’ve traded with before, and he was very happy to see us. We tried to get 4,500 Le to the dollar, but as always they would only give us 4,400 Le to the dollar, which is still fine.
When we stopped by the post office, it was very hot so we got out of the car to wait beside it. When we did everyone who passed by stared at us, and a small crowd gathered to watch us. Some kids ran up yelling, “Apoto,” and wanting to shake our hands. After the post office it was on to St. Mary’s for Laughing Cow cheese and powdered pudding that was made in Holland for Dr. Erdi, along with some breakfast things for the house. We also went across the street where they sell fruits and veggies, and got a nice big fresh pineapple for about a dollar.
When we got back, we cut up the pineapple and had a snack while Dr. Erdi went back to the hospital to check on the boy again. After a little while, the lights came on, so we knew they’d decided to start surgery and went over to watch. When we got there we found out that after operating on the little boy, they were going to do a laporotomy on a newly admitted maternity ward patient who was a referral from the government hospital with an acute abdomen. She is 17 weeks along, and Dr. Erdi had a suspicion that it was her appendix that was causing the problem.
The laporotomy on the young boy went well, and the problem turned out to be a typhoid perforation. Just after surgery there was a huge improvement already from before. By that time it was way past dinnertime, and it was starting to rain, so the girls and I decided to run back and have dinner and tell David to please send an umbrella for Dr. Erdi and John, who decided to stay and watch the surgery.
Dinner was so good, prawn crackers and couscous with chicken. After dinner we read for a while before going to bed.
This post is dedicated to the woman with the wound on her face, who was never admitted because she left ignored and left.
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