June 17, 2011

Today was a full day but not a hectic one.  At 3 am, Dad deliverd the woman with severe preeclampsia.   It was a fetal demise, so it was pretty sad.  Her blood pressure went down and she looks much better today.  Praise the Lord! She may be able to go home tomorrow.  After we made rounds this morning, Dad delivered another woman who had been laboring all night.  She had shortness of breath and was exhausted.  The baby was coming out a little crooked, but it came out fine.  Another little girl!  Next, Dad did a minor surgery in the clinic.  A woman had a stitch that was too tight and caused her a lot of pain.  He just numbed her up and removed it.  She was very sweet, but I'm sure it was very painful.  We saw some more patients in the clinic, but everyone was pretty much ok.  Dad did a C-Section on a 16 year old who looked like she was 10.  She must have had some sort of syndrome, but her mother said she was just small.  She weighed only 60 pounds so for the C-Section they couldn't do a spinal.  They had to use ketamine.  She had a healthy 5lb. boy.  The first boy I've seen born.  Back in the clinic, we admitted a pregnant woman with malaria.  She had also miscarried, so Dad had to do a D&C.. She didn't want the baby, so someone in the village gave her medicine to induce an abortion.  She had to come to the hospital to actually remove the fetus.  Needless to say, I did not watch that surgery!  We also admitted a woman who was very weak and had alot of labs done at a hospital in the capital.  The labs showed that she had bad renal failure, so we were expecting the worst.  She got IV fluids and a unit of blood. Turns out, all of the labs were wrong.  They repeated them here and they all showed she was ok.  She most likely was just sick with a virus or something.  She is doing much better.  So, now the baby count is 9 and Dad has delivered 6.  (The uncomplicated deliveries are done by the nurse/midwife.)  It is amazing how far people come to see the doctor at this hospital.  Yesterday, a woman was here from Nigeria which is like 2 countries away.  Word gets out that there are specialist doctors who give good care and people come.  Also, all of the nurses at the public hospitals are on strike, so people can't get any care anywhere else.  Trust me they aren't coming for the facilities.  It is amazing to see all of the family members who come with each patient.  The family is responsible for feeding and giving non- medical care to each patient.  They put mats on the floor and set up shop next to the patient's bed.  Dad said the other night there was someone sleeping on every bed, stretcher, chair and every inch of floor space.  It is a different place.  Dad asks every night what's on TV!  Haha!  I wish we had TV!