Are you ready today? (tue/wed/thurs)

Just alittle bit of \Africa, a few huts in the old folks village

The poor little 8year old boy

Today was a very sad day, thinking about what happened today just breaks my heart. Working in the medical field you know going in to it that you are going to have good patients and bad, and that you will have patients that will get better and some that don’t. Today there were 3 deaths and since I have been here I have seen a good number of people die, but today it was different. The first one was a little 8 year old boy. We got in report that he has been having seizures and been having a terrible fever and since yesterday he has been unconscious. I assessed him yesterday and it was not good, we couldn’t get the temperature down and couldn’t wake him up, gave him multiple drugs (that we actually had) and the boy was not even reacting to pain and his pupils weren’t reacting, and that’s never good. The parents spoke English so I was able to tell them a little bit but they didn’t fully understand. When we came in this morning we found out that he has just passed away, wow that’s sad, only 8 years old. Then there was a little baby just born a few days ago, I didn’t help with this birth as it was during the night. But the little infant was sick and we did a Malaria slide, and it was positive and then this morning we found out yet again the little child died also. Two deaths and it was only 8am, both so small and helpless.

 

When we are doing rounds we come to a 20 year old guy and he is much worse then yesterday. The nice thing about doing rounds on all the patients daily is being able to see them progress or digress. This man, I guess you can call him a man came into the hospital yesterday with pain in his hip, that’s all. They did an x-ray and nothing was wrong with it. This morning we came back to check on him and he looked much worse, the pain was all in his chest now and he was breathing very heavily. When you palpated his abdomen you could hear how dull it was, just full of air, his stomach was very distended. But from what, he has had nothing to eat or drink, he has bowel sounds and we gave him no medications yesterday besides pain relievers, how did he get like this in one day? The 20 year old couldn’t take deep breaths and could barely talk; I even noticed some white dots on his face today that wasn’t there yesterday. We all tried putting an IV in, we finally got it after about 8 tries (ya we poked him that many times, the doctor could barely get one.) In the US if we cant get it after 3 tries we stop and the doctor comes and tries, if no such luck then a PICC line is inserted. Poor kid was cringing in pain, his skin was so tough. We got an IV in after about 15 minutes and gave a bolus of fluids, we took him to get an x-ray and ultra sound and still found nothing.

 

Around 11 we went for a tea break and I decided to play with some of the kids and make sure that Robert was doing his exercises. For about 30 minutes we played catch, basketball, and Frisbee, it was great he was making such improvement. Around 11:30, I look over and find many women crying in hysterics, so I go to find out who it is about. The boy from the morning was doing much worse and we have no idea why. The nurse, Jimmy and I try to prop him up to help him breath and change the fluids bag, because it was empty. I feel his pulse and it is very faint, then decided to listen to his heart and lungs and they are also very faint. The NG tube we just inserted was draining a lot of fluid that wasn’t bile and it just did not look right. I went to get the doctor because I was getting concerned now, he said he would be there in a few minutes. I checked the guy’s pupils and they were fixed and dilated, that’s definitely not good, I look over and I don’t see him breathing. The doctor comes in and I tell him to listen to the boy, I don’t think he is breathing. My heart is now beating very fast, praying that this boy didn’t just die in front of me.

 

You cant even tell that the girl has 6 toes, on both feet

                                                     The infant has almost double thumb
                                                     

Sure enough the kid died right there, I looked at the clock, and I said it is 12:22. The doctor said time of death 12:22, and I had to just walk away or I was going to lose it in front of all the other patients. I walk outside and I just start crying, even now as I am writing this I can’t help but cry. I feel so helpless, we tried and nothing helped and we have no idea what happened. The doctor thinks that the family gave him something last night and wont tells us and he reacted to it and went into shock and just couldn’t come out of it. As I am crying outside, all I could think about was that this guy was probably not saved, and he was now down in hell. I wanted to do more, CPR, give him drugs, do something, but they just cant at this hospital, and I just hated that. I cried for about 30 minutes as I could hear the screams and cries from inside the hospital from the family. 20 years old, so young and he came in with hip pain. It just goes to show you, you never know when you will die and go into eternity, you think you have till your 80 years old, but today just shows you that’s not always the case. 3 boys all 20 and under died and they had no idea today was going to be there last day on earth. I feel ashamed, how many people do I come in contact with and don’t tell them about the one who died for their sins. Jesus died for my sins and saved me from eternal damnation in hell, and all He asks of me is to be a disciple and tell others about that good news, that there is way to heaven and it is through Him. My heart is very heavy and hopefully I will learn from this and tell others about their Saviour!

 

                                                               Just playing with the kids

For the rest of the day I had to keep myself occupied or I was going to break down again. I helped Martin with a few procedures and helped a few of the nurses put in catheters, IVs and NG tubes. Martin had a case where the little baby girl had 4 extra digits, one on every limb. That was pretty cool to see, he stitched a few kids up, took some sutures out, drained a head wound, interesting things to help him with for the rest of the work day. At 1:30, Harriet and I were out of there on our way to lunch, and I couldn’t really talk much or I was going to cry again (ya I know some of us girls are emotional.)

 

                                                   My favroite hot sauce , I put it on everything

After lunch, Tim took us to the older village to go and chat and meet the older people who are kind of outcasts. Tim did all the translating but they were very happy to meet us and loved having company. One of the ladies was a leopard and I didn’t know people still got that, I figured that was more just Bible times, guess not. We went to all the people shaking their hands and just chatting. Tim told us that they were so happy to see us, no one ever comes to visit and it is always nice to see a friendly new face. I guess you never think something so small could brighten up someone’s day.

 

                                                   Just holding a uterus, dont I look cute

Later in the night was the youth bible study, I was happy to see the boy with all the questions here again. After it ended he came up to me and handed me his questions, I was surprised to see he had almost the entire page filled. I started from question one and worked my way down. He was listening very good, making comments and asking more questions. I did the best I could to make it as simple as possible for him, but with only Gods wisdom. He asked me for some bible verses for him to read and I let him know I would have them for him next week. It was nice to see him so interested; also while I was talking to him, many others were listening too. I hope I helped, but it is up to God now. Maybe next week I will be able to talk to him more, maybe tell him how I accepted Jesus. How He changed my life and how now I have eternal peace and happiness, knowing one day I will be with my Lord and Saviour, the one that died for me!

 

During surgery

 

Thursday I was in the theatre all day. I saw 3 more women get their tubes tied; a woman got a hysterectomy and the doctor finished with Robert getting his final suture and finishing up his arm. I was very pleased that he was knocked out enough that he did not make a sound nor did move, but boy will he be in pain when he wakes up. I will be sure to visit him with a lollipop tomorrow! Harriet and I had a nice dinner with Julie and Becka and we finished up the rest of Anne of Green Gables! I am ready for the weekend so we can finish planning our trip to Victoria Falls! I am off for now, hopefully I can write one more post before we leave on Monday!

                                                  This is an ant hill!!! can you believe it