Tuesday 14 August 2012

Just one of those days-August 13th, 2012

Let's just say today was one of those days. It was quite a rough day at the hospital. The day started off when we left the compound at about 830 am to head to the hospital. When we arrived we werent really sure where we were going to end up today. We started by checking out minor, like we do everyday. There were quite a few students down there already so we decided that we should go see what surgeries were going on in the main theater upstairs. 5 of us headed up and went to the changing rooms where you change your scrubs and get a pair of rubber boots to wear. Once changed, we all met out in the hall and checked out the surgeries going on for the day. We then passed by the theaters to see which ones were going on. One of the guys went down to an ear, nose and throat surgery in theater 4, while the rest of us were going to see what the general surgery was in theater 2. When we walked in we were instantly interrogated. We explained to the nurse that we were pre med students there to shadow and on the first day we were given these letters signed by a head doctor stating that it was ok for us to shadow in any ward we wanted and that they were to allow us to. We were told to leave and find a nurse outside. We then found someone and asked them and they said we had to find a head nurse who was suppose to be in theater 2 (where we just came from and were told to find someone else). We then went to the front desk and asked a lady there, she got up and left. When she returned she proceeded to tell us that we needed to go down to the admin office and have the doctor who signed our papers call up there and say it was ok for us to watch. At this point I was frustrated because the purpose of the letters were to let them know we were able to shadow and to avoid these problems, but for some reason some of the surgeons think too highly of themselves. So we werent sure what to do. The other 2 guys went down to the ear, nose and throat surgery, which just left Megan and me. We decided to go back downstairs and see if there was anything else we could see.

When we arrived at minor theater again, we saw Omar, the Russian medical student. We talked to him and we decided that we wanted to take a look in the plaster room, where they put casts on people. Omar showed us the room and Megan and I entered. There was a man in there that had 2 broken legs, which was the same guy we had seen in casuality last week. The doctor was pulling back some gauze that was covering an open wound. Once the gauze was removed a very bad smell filled the room and the wound was exposed. We were startled to see that there were maggots on the mans leg. The doctor had said that his wound was infected and thats why there were maggots. He cleaned the wound with iodine and was going to just wrap it up around the cast, but then he noticed that the cast was broke underneath where it was open for the wound. So he cut the cast off and exposed rest of his leg. We then saw another huge strip of maggots still on the mans leg. The doctor then cleaned it again and wrapped the wound up and put his leg on a brace. He told us that they were just casting his legs until he is able to have surgery because the wound was from the bone poking through the skin. After the doctor was done with him, we were at a dead end again. We decided to run back up to the main theater because we were told that there was an orthopedic surgery about to happen.

We arrived back up at the main theater and were able to observe the surgeon fixing a patella (kneecap) that had broke in 2. They made an incision right down the front of the knee and cut through the tissues until they were able to reach the bones. The surgeon then cut away some of what I believe was fatty tissue and also removed some of the bone. They then drilled 2 holes through both parts of the bone and hammered a pin in each hole. They then made a few smaller incisions on either side of the patella and strung a wire through the holes, kind of like a connect the dot puzzle. They then twisted the wires together and cut it shorter. They also cut the remaining ends on the pins. After they were finished they proceeded by suturing up the knee. I found that this was a strange way to repair a patella. I do not quite understand how the knee will be able to fully function with the wire wrapped around because it went around some of the outer tissue too. I have never seen a surgery like this in the US so I dont really have anything to compare it to. After we finished with this surgery we left the hospital and went to this resturant called Karibu, which is Swahili means welcome. We then went home and relaxed until dinner.

After dinner, a group of us went to Cafe Mocha and then decided to go to the hospital again. We arrived at the hospital around 9 pm. There were quite a few patients in casuality, so we jumped in right away to see what we could do. We first saw a baby that had a tummy that was extended out and was pretty hard. We werent sure what was wrong, but I later found out that the baby had an obstruction in its bowel and they had to remove over half of the large intestine. We then saw a man that had been stabbed in the side. They first started by changing the dressing to observe the wound, then we had to get an IV in him so we could draw blood. I am proud to say that I successfully put the IV in on my first try again :) We then had a woman who was in there because she had a terrible headache and needed a vaginal exam. She proceeded to tell us she was under stress because her husband had recently been seeing other women and then came home to her and forced her to have intercourse with him. She was in there to have an exam because I think she might have had a miscarriage because he forced her. Our last patient in casuality was a man who had been brought in from the ward (jail) and he looked very frail and weak. We found out that he was anemic and he wasnt getting much circulation to his fingers because his hands were cold and his fingertips were white. We had a very difficult time getting an IV in him so we could start getting fluids in him asap. We were able to get a line in him, but it took several tries. Before we left there was a patient that we saw in minor, who had a cut on his finger. We had to first get him an xray to make sure nothing was broken and when we found out nothing was we proceeded to suture him up. We only got 2 stitches in him because the flap of skin was so thin that the thread would just come out. That ended our night and we finally got home around 1 am.

No comments:

Post a Comment