Africa Vision 18

Africa Vision 18

Bebedja, December 8, 2007

Deep wound

Yesterday night I visited the hospital in the evening visit. To my great surprise all the doors to the rooms where the nurses posts are were closed. I decided to pretend I was a patient looking for help and barged in to the first room. One of the nurses woke up with a sigh and with her were both a baby and a baby sitter. The cute little baby with a Mohawk was protected by a mini mosquito net. To assure that in case of heavy work load mom could not take care of the baby a baby sitter was. The second door I knocked on led to the same result a sweet baby not ready to sleep yet crawling around the maternity room. The third room however was the most fun. As I knocked a sleepy nurse opened the door to slam it straight shut in my face. Terror spoke in her eyes. Who was this hairy monster waking her up at 21.00? Only after 2 minutes she could compose herself. In the mean time Dromir (one of the male nurses) and I could not stop laughing.

I asked the nurse what was next? Would she take her chicken, goat and husband as well? I guess my silly sense of humor was not understood. But Dromir and I were giggling like two little schoolboys scheming to plan something mischievous. I must say that the nurses here do a great job. Workload is heavy. Patients do not always comply very well. There can be big issues with the patient’s family. Today a young man was brought into the hospital with a head injury after a motorbike accident. He did not wear a helmet. In fact if I see them they are mainly elbow decoration. His 30 (I am not exaggerating) relatives and friends nearly stormed the emergency room and when he started to convulse a wall of wail broke out deafening the hospital. When we wanted to transport him to a room a scuffle that would have looked good in any Monty Python Fling Circus episode.

Tonight my silliness reached peak levels. It must have been the fact that outside I can hear the steady sound of a sound system churning out Congolese zuk while I am hanging out in my little bungalow. On the street I had met this huge clando man (motor taxi driver) talking to his friend who was about 50 centimeters smaller. I offered to cut off the giants legs and attach them to the midgets so the could at least talk face to face. Tonight that same motor taxi man popped up with a seriously wounded patient. A young lady had a beer bottle explode in her hands and as a consequence we found a lesion about 3 millimeter deep and 1 centimeter long on her index finger after scrubbing of the wound area. Dromir and I look at each other and started joking about the wound. Perhaps it would be better to admit the young lady given the severity of the wound. That we would whip out a good old decent plaster for her. This would immobilize her and assure her finger to rest tranquil while she continued her drinking spree. I quipped that in case she would go dancing she should keep her arms still. At least Dromir and the motor taxi man understood my exaggerations.

To end my night on a funky note I requested Dromir to give any and all patients at night a free Paris plaster. He had just told me how many patients with fractures go home remove the plaster have the local traditional healer attach tree branches and then return to the hospital to collect medication. More about the local practices in the next blog. The first visitors are coming in a week’s time. I hope to take them south a bit so they can see what is gong on there..

Ashis