I didn't realize it was urgent till I burst through the door into labor and delivery.
I knew the woman in labor had a fetus in the breech position with one foot wanting to come out first. I'd told the midwife to alert me when she was completely dilated so I could assist the delivery.
Sarah came and told me that the woman was about to deliver so I wandered back over to the hospital.
When I opened the door, I sized up the situation instantly and sprang into action.
I saw a woman lying on metal table with her legs spread apart and coming out of her was an abdomen with two legs attached, flopping down onto the bed. No arms or head was visible. My first thought was gloves but as I reached for the ones I'd washed and hung to dry earlier I realized they were still too moist to get on quickly so I dove in with my bare hands.
When the baby comes out feet first it's very important that she deliver quickly because if not the umbilical cord coming out of the abdomen will be compressed by the fetal head blocking off the blood circulation and its crucial supply of oxygen to the baby.
I had no time to lose since who knows how many minutes had flown by with the head stuck before I arrived.
I reached inside to try and free up the first arm. It wouldn't budge. I twisted the baby around so the other arm was on top. This time I was able to hook it with my index finger and drag it down and out. I turned the baby over again and freed up the other arm. Then I stuck my finger in the baby's mouth and pulled his chin down to his chest all the while pulling with my other hand firmly grasping the baby's feet between my fingers.
The head popped out and the baby flopped to the table. No tone. No cry. No breathing. Grayish blue color.
I quickly clamped and cut the cord and moved the limp mass over to the reanimation table. I started rapidly pressing the chest with one had while I quickly grabbed the bulb suction with the other and tried to clear his airway. He had a faint, slow heartbeat. For those of you who know, APGAR at one minute was one.
I kept doing chest compressions while the midwife dried, stimulated and sucked the gunk out of his nostrils.
After what seemed like hours, but was really minutes the heartbeat started to pick up. He grimaced a little and seemed like he wanted to cough.
We continued our efforts.
Slowly but surely he started to pink up and his heartrate became normal. Still pretty floppy and no breathing.
Don't stop now.
Finally, his legs and arms started to curl up. He was getting some muscle tone and his body was now pink.
At last, after I turned him over and gave him a good whack on the back he started screaming like a banshee.
Amazingly enough, APGAR at 5 minutes was nine! He was discharged home in good condition two days later.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Miracles
Miracles start with small things and are often small themselves and go
unrecognized unless we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
I almost forgot to bring my pillow. Sarah held it out to me at the last
minute as I rushed out the door, hopped in the back of the van and took a
nap all the way to Kelo where we dropped off Andre and his adopted daughter.
They got on public transport for Lere while Levi and I went to the TEAM
mission station there in Kelo to find some Arabic new testaments. The rep
for the Gideons wasn't there but promised to meet me at noon at the Kelo
hospital.
I foolishly thought I'd be done in Moundou before then.
We arrive in Moundou and go directly to the construction site. Frederic,
the boss, isn't there. I call him and while waiting check out the progress.
The bricked up windows have been reopened letting in a ton of light. The
back two rooms have been converted into one large room with three huge
windows and a double door from the outside and a small door into the
hallway. This will be the operating room. The slab for the veranda has
been re poured, the trusses have been repaired, the roof replaced and the new
ceiling mostly done.
I go back outside and see Anatole, our head lab tech. Two days ago I received a message that his son had meningitis here in Moundou.
"Anatole, bonjour, ca va? I tried to call you but I couldn't get through."
"Yeah, my phone was stolen at the hospital."
"I wanted to contact you to have you bring your son back to Bere, how did you find me here?"
"I just happened to see the van drive by and followed it here."
Anatole then goes on to explain how his son was treated (or mal-treated) first at the health center with once a day IM Quinine and Penicilline and then referred to the only hospital here in Moundou, Chad's second largest city. No lab tests were done to confirm or deny meningitis or cerebral malaria but treatment was started. The antibiotic wasn't available and had to be purchased on the black market for 5 times the going price. Nurses came by once a day only for injections and once, the nurse came to give a shot with an empty seringe and didn't notice until Anatole pointed out he'd just injected air into his son's thigh! In a week at the hospital, he saw a doctor once. He finally decided last night to just take him home where at
least he himself could make sure the meds were given when they were supposed to!
Antoine, our church contact in Moundou shows up and we go to see the "Chef de Quartier" to find out about purchasing 1 or 2 of the empty lots next to our project. We bounce over the dirt streets of this industrial capital of Chad and turn down a small side street before pulling up in front of a brick wall.
Attached to the wall is a small lean two with low ceiling made of brick and tin roofing. I stoop through the narrow door into a dark room filled with old men. The dim light comes through cracks in the bricks and ceiling and through the door illuminating several low wood slat chairs and a rickety hand made coffee table with various documents spread across the top. The chief is a wizened man in his late 60's or 70's with short white curly hair, a traditional long pocketed shirt and trousers and a leg wrapped in an elastic bandage.
We are motioned to some of the low chairs, only a few inches off the ground. I find myself basically squatting with the slats digging into my bony butt. Antoine starts speaking in Ngambai. I catch a few words like "doctor" "hospital" "magistrate" etc. and after much dialogue Antoine gives me the resume that he knows the original owner of one lot and he'll ask who he sold it to so we can see if we can buy it and that the owner of the second property is an old magistrate who is too old and tired to build and has told the Chief to contact him if he finds a worthy buyer. He is very content that we're building a health institution in his neighborhood and will do all he can to help.
"It seems your sick," I speak to the chief in French, pointing to his leg. "Mind if I take a look?"
He motions for a young man outside who comes in and between the two of us we lift up and unwrap his leg revealing a bunch of crumbled up dry leaves wrapped around a single swollen ankle and foot in the traditional manner. The other leg isn't swollen at all so I suspect early elephantiasis and prescribe him medicines for filarial worms and tell him to elevate his leg at night.
Just then, the pudgy old man to his right starts hacking up a lung. He's been coughing for a while so I prescribe him two antibiotics and an inhaler to open up his airways.
They are very happy and the chief steps outside with us to wish us well and tell Antoine to check back tomorrow about the properties.
After a few other errands, we stop at one of this metropolis's two gas stations. A couple of Arabs are lounging on chairs between the three antique pumps in the sandy courtyard. They slowly rise up as we place our three gas cans open in front of them and unlock the gas tank. We place our airplane fuel filter in the opening as they "warm up" the pump. It slowly whirs into action and after a few minutes they start pumping. The gas spews out in spurts and little bursts of air spraying the gasoline into our tank. After 18 L (4 1/2 gallons) it stops running.
"Sorry, that's the last of it. We should have some more tomorrow!"
We drive off to the second and last gas station. As we pull up the two guys sitting out front just look at us when we ask if they have gas and shake their fingers "no".
We pick up Anatole and his son and lay him in the back, conviently there is a slightly used pillow waiting for him to rest his head on.
We arrive in Kelo without incident. The Post is closed. We go to the hospital. It's 2pm and Mathias, my contact for the Arab Bibles has gone home. We get his number from the nurse on night duty and he tells us to meet him at the Pili-Pili Hotel.
After picking him up and going back to the hospital to get the Bibles we return him directly to his house in the "suburbs". As we head back towards the main robe a tall, athletic man comes running after us in a green Arab robe barely covering his basketball shorts. He waves his hands and yells after us.
"You have a ton of packages at the Post Office. You need to pick them up tomorrow."
"We're heading back to Bere now and it's not easy to come. Can't you open up the office and let us take them with us now?"
"Ok. Ca va."
He hops in and we pick up 25 packages, most for the student missionaries but one from the AMALF in France containing 150 vials of Ceftriaxone, the exact medicine we need (and just ran out of) in order to treat Anatole's son's partially and poorly treated meningitis.
As I pray with Anatole later, after arriving in Bere I am convinced that God will heal his son since he went to some much effort in so many small ways to bring us in contact and get us the exact medicines we need. Seemingly insignificant details when seen alone, but miracles none the less.
unrecognized unless we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
I almost forgot to bring my pillow. Sarah held it out to me at the last
minute as I rushed out the door, hopped in the back of the van and took a
nap all the way to Kelo where we dropped off Andre and his adopted daughter.
They got on public transport for Lere while Levi and I went to the TEAM
mission station there in Kelo to find some Arabic new testaments. The rep
for the Gideons wasn't there but promised to meet me at noon at the Kelo
hospital.
I foolishly thought I'd be done in Moundou before then.
We arrive in Moundou and go directly to the construction site. Frederic,
the boss, isn't there. I call him and while waiting check out the progress.
The bricked up windows have been reopened letting in a ton of light. The
back two rooms have been converted into one large room with three huge
windows and a double door from the outside and a small door into the
hallway. This will be the operating room. The slab for the veranda has
been re poured, the trusses have been repaired, the roof replaced and the new
ceiling mostly done.
I go back outside and see Anatole, our head lab tech. Two days ago I received a message that his son had meningitis here in Moundou.
"Anatole, bonjour, ca va? I tried to call you but I couldn't get through."
"Yeah, my phone was stolen at the hospital."
"I wanted to contact you to have you bring your son back to Bere, how did you find me here?"
"I just happened to see the van drive by and followed it here."
Anatole then goes on to explain how his son was treated (or mal-treated) first at the health center with once a day IM Quinine and Penicilline and then referred to the only hospital here in Moundou, Chad's second largest city. No lab tests were done to confirm or deny meningitis or cerebral malaria but treatment was started. The antibiotic wasn't available and had to be purchased on the black market for 5 times the going price. Nurses came by once a day only for injections and once, the nurse came to give a shot with an empty seringe and didn't notice until Anatole pointed out he'd just injected air into his son's thigh! In a week at the hospital, he saw a doctor once. He finally decided last night to just take him home where at
least he himself could make sure the meds were given when they were supposed to!
Antoine, our church contact in Moundou shows up and we go to see the "Chef de Quartier" to find out about purchasing 1 or 2 of the empty lots next to our project. We bounce over the dirt streets of this industrial capital of Chad and turn down a small side street before pulling up in front of a brick wall.
Attached to the wall is a small lean two with low ceiling made of brick and tin roofing. I stoop through the narrow door into a dark room filled with old men. The dim light comes through cracks in the bricks and ceiling and through the door illuminating several low wood slat chairs and a rickety hand made coffee table with various documents spread across the top. The chief is a wizened man in his late 60's or 70's with short white curly hair, a traditional long pocketed shirt and trousers and a leg wrapped in an elastic bandage.
We are motioned to some of the low chairs, only a few inches off the ground. I find myself basically squatting with the slats digging into my bony butt. Antoine starts speaking in Ngambai. I catch a few words like "doctor" "hospital" "magistrate" etc. and after much dialogue Antoine gives me the resume that he knows the original owner of one lot and he'll ask who he sold it to so we can see if we can buy it and that the owner of the second property is an old magistrate who is too old and tired to build and has told the Chief to contact him if he finds a worthy buyer. He is very content that we're building a health institution in his neighborhood and will do all he can to help.
"It seems your sick," I speak to the chief in French, pointing to his leg. "Mind if I take a look?"
He motions for a young man outside who comes in and between the two of us we lift up and unwrap his leg revealing a bunch of crumbled up dry leaves wrapped around a single swollen ankle and foot in the traditional manner. The other leg isn't swollen at all so I suspect early elephantiasis and prescribe him medicines for filarial worms and tell him to elevate his leg at night.
Just then, the pudgy old man to his right starts hacking up a lung. He's been coughing for a while so I prescribe him two antibiotics and an inhaler to open up his airways.
They are very happy and the chief steps outside with us to wish us well and tell Antoine to check back tomorrow about the properties.
After a few other errands, we stop at one of this metropolis's two gas stations. A couple of Arabs are lounging on chairs between the three antique pumps in the sandy courtyard. They slowly rise up as we place our three gas cans open in front of them and unlock the gas tank. We place our airplane fuel filter in the opening as they "warm up" the pump. It slowly whirs into action and after a few minutes they start pumping. The gas spews out in spurts and little bursts of air spraying the gasoline into our tank. After 18 L (4 1/2 gallons) it stops running.
"Sorry, that's the last of it. We should have some more tomorrow!"
We drive off to the second and last gas station. As we pull up the two guys sitting out front just look at us when we ask if they have gas and shake their fingers "no".
We pick up Anatole and his son and lay him in the back, conviently there is a slightly used pillow waiting for him to rest his head on.
We arrive in Kelo without incident. The Post is closed. We go to the hospital. It's 2pm and Mathias, my contact for the Arab Bibles has gone home. We get his number from the nurse on night duty and he tells us to meet him at the Pili-Pili Hotel.
After picking him up and going back to the hospital to get the Bibles we return him directly to his house in the "suburbs". As we head back towards the main robe a tall, athletic man comes running after us in a green Arab robe barely covering his basketball shorts. He waves his hands and yells after us.
"You have a ton of packages at the Post Office. You need to pick them up tomorrow."
"We're heading back to Bere now and it's not easy to come. Can't you open up the office and let us take them with us now?"
"Ok. Ca va."
He hops in and we pick up 25 packages, most for the student missionaries but one from the AMALF in France containing 150 vials of Ceftriaxone, the exact medicine we need (and just ran out of) in order to treat Anatole's son's partially and poorly treated meningitis.
As I pray with Anatole later, after arriving in Bere I am convinced that God will heal his son since he went to some much effort in so many small ways to bring us in contact and get us the exact medicines we need. Seemingly insignificant details when seen alone, but miracles none the less.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Blue baby
Dr. Jacques knocks on the door.
"I just assited an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, but the baby is having espiratory distress. The nares are flaring, the intercostal muscles are retracting and he's just having a hard time. I tried aspirating to see if he had any mucus but it seems his nose is blocked...it's like there's just no connection to the throat."
In my mind I'm thinking, "yeah, right, he must just not know how to stick a tube down a baby's nose..." but my better judgement says I should just go and look.
I enter the dimly lit corridor and push open the labor and delivery room door into a brightly lit, but small chamber. A quick glance takes in a young woman lying comfortably on the bed, not much blood around, and breathing and glancing around normally. She's fine.
I turn to the baby reanimation table and see a chubby, bluish gray baby with a disproportionately tiny head (normal newborns heads are huge compared to their bodies) lying staring up and grunting but not really breathing.
I grab him around the chest, flip him over on my hand and slap him hard on his back. He starts to cry vigourously. I think that must be it. They just are afraid of these supposedly fragile little beings and don't stimulate them enough.
I flip him back over on his back on the green, brightly patterned cloth underneath him and reach for the aspirator. A tiny tube goes into a small canister with a slightly larger tube coming out the same top. I slip the bigger end in my mouth ready to suck and slide the smaller tube into the baby's nose. It only goes in 1-2cm and is stuck. I wiggle it around and then try the other nostril. Still no passage. I stick my finger into the newborn's mouth straight back into his throat. He starts to gag as I feel around and confirm, there's no opening between his nostrils and his airway.
Now, here's the problem. Instinctively, a newborn is an obligatory nose breather. This allows him to nurse and breath at the same time, two very important things God makes sure they now how to do instinctively because there's just no spare time to have to learn it in. He only breaths through his mouth if he cries.
We can't just make him cry all the time, he just won't do it. He cries a little and starts to pink up and then goes back to sucking in impotently on his blocked up nostrils.
What to do? I think quickly and go to the OR to find some probes and see if there isn't some passage back there after all that's just blocked up.
The probes go nowhere. I've brought the hemorroidectomy kit as that's the only one I know of with probes.
I call the father in and explain the situation.
"He can't breath through his mouth because it's against his instinct and he can't live without breathing and we can try to poke a hole through but he could bleed a lot and die or we could damage some important things, but the bottom line is he won't live if we do nothing. What do you think?"
"Do what you have to, it's in God's hands."
I grab a Kelly clamp and probe downward in the right nostril to where the palatte seems thinnest between the nose and mouth. I poke through. I then do the same on the other side. However, he still can't breath because the mucosa of the mouth just falls back in place. We need something to keep it open. I grab the aspirator and cut off a piece of the bigger tubing. I reach the clamp through into the mouth, grasp the tube and pull it out through the nose. The first time it pops all the way out. I then attach another clamp onto the mouth and and pull it through again, this time the clamp prevents it from coming all the way out. I repeat it for the other
nostril.
I suck up some blood out of the nose and mouth and down the tubes using what's left of the newborn aspirator. He's still struggling but I can hear and feel air coming out the two tubes.
I then insert a feeding tube in the mouth and the mother starts squeezing out breastmild which we feed the baby through the tube with a syringe.
He's already pinking up, only his hands and feet stay blueish gray.
Yep, he's in God's hands all right.
"I just assited an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, but the baby is having espiratory distress. The nares are flaring, the intercostal muscles are retracting and he's just having a hard time. I tried aspirating to see if he had any mucus but it seems his nose is blocked...it's like there's just no connection to the throat."
In my mind I'm thinking, "yeah, right, he must just not know how to stick a tube down a baby's nose..." but my better judgement says I should just go and look.
I enter the dimly lit corridor and push open the labor and delivery room door into a brightly lit, but small chamber. A quick glance takes in a young woman lying comfortably on the bed, not much blood around, and breathing and glancing around normally. She's fine.
I turn to the baby reanimation table and see a chubby, bluish gray baby with a disproportionately tiny head (normal newborns heads are huge compared to their bodies) lying staring up and grunting but not really breathing.
I grab him around the chest, flip him over on my hand and slap him hard on his back. He starts to cry vigourously. I think that must be it. They just are afraid of these supposedly fragile little beings and don't stimulate them enough.
I flip him back over on his back on the green, brightly patterned cloth underneath him and reach for the aspirator. A tiny tube goes into a small canister with a slightly larger tube coming out the same top. I slip the bigger end in my mouth ready to suck and slide the smaller tube into the baby's nose. It only goes in 1-2cm and is stuck. I wiggle it around and then try the other nostril. Still no passage. I stick my finger into the newborn's mouth straight back into his throat. He starts to gag as I feel around and confirm, there's no opening between his nostrils and his airway.
Now, here's the problem. Instinctively, a newborn is an obligatory nose breather. This allows him to nurse and breath at the same time, two very important things God makes sure they now how to do instinctively because there's just no spare time to have to learn it in. He only breaths through his mouth if he cries.
We can't just make him cry all the time, he just won't do it. He cries a little and starts to pink up and then goes back to sucking in impotently on his blocked up nostrils.
What to do? I think quickly and go to the OR to find some probes and see if there isn't some passage back there after all that's just blocked up.
The probes go nowhere. I've brought the hemorroidectomy kit as that's the only one I know of with probes.
I call the father in and explain the situation.
"He can't breath through his mouth because it's against his instinct and he can't live without breathing and we can try to poke a hole through but he could bleed a lot and die or we could damage some important things, but the bottom line is he won't live if we do nothing. What do you think?"
"Do what you have to, it's in God's hands."
I grab a Kelly clamp and probe downward in the right nostril to where the palatte seems thinnest between the nose and mouth. I poke through. I then do the same on the other side. However, he still can't breath because the mucosa of the mouth just falls back in place. We need something to keep it open. I grab the aspirator and cut off a piece of the bigger tubing. I reach the clamp through into the mouth, grasp the tube and pull it out through the nose. The first time it pops all the way out. I then attach another clamp onto the mouth and and pull it through again, this time the clamp prevents it from coming all the way out. I repeat it for the other
nostril.
I suck up some blood out of the nose and mouth and down the tubes using what's left of the newborn aspirator. He's still struggling but I can hear and feel air coming out the two tubes.
I then insert a feeding tube in the mouth and the mother starts squeezing out breastmild which we feed the baby through the tube with a syringe.
He's already pinking up, only his hands and feet stay blueish gray.
Yep, he's in God's hands all right.
Ma Joie
At the last minute, I decide to go. I hardly got any sleep last night and woke up at 3am before falling back asleep until the alarm sounds at 4:30am.
"Sarah, I think I'm not going to N'Djamena. What am I really going to do there anyway? I'll just stay."
Sarah get's up and get's ready. I still don't hear Levi, the driver, so at 5 till 5am I get up and drive the car over to the hospital. I flip on the lights in the men's ward.
"Hey, you two, get up. We're leaving at five, remember? You're supposed to be ready!"
Our two friends, Mahamat and Lamglé, slowly raise up wiping their eyes. Their "garde-malades" start pulling down the mosquito nets and taking off the sheets carefully from under their right legs, twin-casted from groin to ankle.
I'd just performed the second surgery on each of them for non-union and mal-union femur fractures. They are relatives and both were in motorcycle accidents. I tried doing an open reduction and traction for each of them first but it didn't work. I just operated again a week ago and put in plates and screws with a cast. Now, I wanted to take them to N'Djamena for an xray since ours hasn't been working for years. Besides, they lived there and this way they can convalesce at home.
I'm now awake, and since Levi still isn't here I quickly pack, grab some cold Zachée pizza from the fridge and a week old bottle of vanilla protein drink for the road and we're off.
The headlights actually make driving on the rain scourged roads easier as the shadows light up where the holes are. Dawn breaks and a cool desert morning rushes in the open windows.
I startle a brightly colored bird with several shades of brilliant blue and a super-long tail. Unfortunately, it isn't fast enough and gets taken out in mid flight by the left side of the minibuses grill going out with a quick crunch.
A short time later, after missing countless sheep, goats, horses, cattle and camels I come across an Arab donkey caravan on a one way bridge and as I've almost come to a complete stop one of those dumb asses turns into the car with a piece of wood strapped to it's side and a crinkle of glass tells me my left headlight is no more.
Moving on, two little baby goats, one black and one white with black spots streak suddenly across the highway with just enough space in them for simultaneously sickening crunches under each front wheel. A quick glance in the rearview mirror shows the white one motionless but the black one struggling with it's head and front legs while it's back legs lie stuck to the asphalt.
Rounding the corner into N'Djamena over the bridge we strain to catch a glimpse of the hippos in the river but to no avail.
We drop off Mahamat and Lamglé at the National Reference Hospital in the midst of a chaotic ER filled with bodys in various stages of casting, wrapping, dressing and IV'ing.
Sarah and I bounce around N'Djamena in the minibus over near the airport towards the National Tuberculosis Program buildings. We enter our order for TB meds and are told to go wait in the pharmacy.
A small, lean, lighter skinned Chadian with a six-o'clock shadow beard and a bright smile waves us into his office and orders a young boy to bring "Chai" while he fills our order.
His French isn't that great and when we speak a few words of Arabic he lights up and speaks clearly and slowly so we can understand, peppering his talk with the occasional French or English word.
Apparently, he did all his studies here in Arabic, which is possible, but unusual, even getting his "bac" in Arabic (the French equivalent of a high school diploma). He then studied three years of nursing and three years of pharmacy in Syria.
He mentions that Christians and Muslims are very similar. We nod in agreement. He talks about not drinking alcohol and eating pork. I mention how we don't smoke as well.
I say the most important thing in life is to make it to paradise and he agrees with multiple "inshallahs" (God willing).
We start talking about the holy books and that there is the Tawrat (Torah), the Injil (the Gospel) and the Koran. They all are God's way of communicating with Man.
I mention that the true religion is the religion of Ibrahim (Abraham) he nods.
He asks if we are married. We nod and Sarah points out that Adoum (Adam) had only Hawa (Eve) and not Maryam, Khadidja, etc. as well. He laughs and says that in Islam it is permitted to have 4 wives, but only under special circumstances.
I agree saying that yes in countries hit hard by war, like Chad where women outnumber men, I can understand that, but it's an exception and I laughingly say that there is enough trouble with one woman, why add more? He stretches out his hand to be slapped and grasped in the Chadian way of sharing a joke and laughs along with me.
He agrees, which is why he also only has one wife, besides, life is difficult and who can afford more than one wife anyway?
He then asks if we have any children. We say not yet, and he replies that Allah will give us some, inshallah.
He then calls the boy back and tells him to pour us some more tea as we continue some small talk.
Sarah mentions that we have several Korans at home.
He asks if they're in English or what language.
We say Arabic, English and French. He nods approvingly.
We finish our tea, he helps us haul out the TB meds to our van and we shake hands promising to see each other another day, inshallah.
I somehow have no doubt that I will see him again, whether on earth or not, certainly in paradise.
Sarah and I are off. We run some other errands before being called back to pick up Mahamat and Lamglé. We wander through several dirt road detours through the "suburbs" of N'Djamena (mud brick houses slightly more spread apart than in the "Grande ville") until we come to a mud plastered three roomed house with a ramshackle covered dirt "porch" which Mahamat claims as his. He apologizes saying a huge wind knocked half his wall down last May.
After helping them out onto crutches and onto a mat in the shade we are invited to sit with them. A metal bowl of water is placed before us. I try to ignore the floating things as I bring it slowly to my parched lips. A young boy is sent off for some Cokes and Grapefruit "Top". We then have some rice "boule" with some green leaf and dried fish sauce. I must be starving because as I dig into the sticky rice paste and dip it into the spicy sauce, I actually can't eat it fast enough. It just seems to hit the spot.
We then head off back to the "big city" and stop at Ma Joie's house. Ma Joie is the 8 year old girl, also a relative of Mahamat and Lamglé who also had a right femur fracture that also wasn't healed properly that we also opened and reduced and put in traction. The only difference is that she healed after two months and has been home for over a month already.
We enter a low, dank mud entrance down an open alley past some couches in various stages of fabrication until we turn into an open courtyard. There our shy, cute little friend limps towards us on one crutch. Apparently, she doesn't need it but her grandfather insisted she use it in front of us in case we expected it. We greet all 14 members of the extended family and Ma Joie makes my day by lighting up with a crooked tooth grin when I lay out my hand palm up so she can give me "five". She slaps it hard and soon all the other kids are lining up! Right before we leave, she runs off and brings us each a black plastic bag with some brightly colored African cloth as a present.
She is not only Ma Joie but Notre Joie (our joy)...
"Sarah, I think I'm not going to N'Djamena. What am I really going to do there anyway? I'll just stay."
Sarah get's up and get's ready. I still don't hear Levi, the driver, so at 5 till 5am I get up and drive the car over to the hospital. I flip on the lights in the men's ward.
"Hey, you two, get up. We're leaving at five, remember? You're supposed to be ready!"
Our two friends, Mahamat and Lamglé, slowly raise up wiping their eyes. Their "garde-malades" start pulling down the mosquito nets and taking off the sheets carefully from under their right legs, twin-casted from groin to ankle.
I'd just performed the second surgery on each of them for non-union and mal-union femur fractures. They are relatives and both were in motorcycle accidents. I tried doing an open reduction and traction for each of them first but it didn't work. I just operated again a week ago and put in plates and screws with a cast. Now, I wanted to take them to N'Djamena for an xray since ours hasn't been working for years. Besides, they lived there and this way they can convalesce at home.
I'm now awake, and since Levi still isn't here I quickly pack, grab some cold Zachée pizza from the fridge and a week old bottle of vanilla protein drink for the road and we're off.
The headlights actually make driving on the rain scourged roads easier as the shadows light up where the holes are. Dawn breaks and a cool desert morning rushes in the open windows.
I startle a brightly colored bird with several shades of brilliant blue and a super-long tail. Unfortunately, it isn't fast enough and gets taken out in mid flight by the left side of the minibuses grill going out with a quick crunch.
A short time later, after missing countless sheep, goats, horses, cattle and camels I come across an Arab donkey caravan on a one way bridge and as I've almost come to a complete stop one of those dumb asses turns into the car with a piece of wood strapped to it's side and a crinkle of glass tells me my left headlight is no more.
Moving on, two little baby goats, one black and one white with black spots streak suddenly across the highway with just enough space in them for simultaneously sickening crunches under each front wheel. A quick glance in the rearview mirror shows the white one motionless but the black one struggling with it's head and front legs while it's back legs lie stuck to the asphalt.
Rounding the corner into N'Djamena over the bridge we strain to catch a glimpse of the hippos in the river but to no avail.
We drop off Mahamat and Lamglé at the National Reference Hospital in the midst of a chaotic ER filled with bodys in various stages of casting, wrapping, dressing and IV'ing.
Sarah and I bounce around N'Djamena in the minibus over near the airport towards the National Tuberculosis Program buildings. We enter our order for TB meds and are told to go wait in the pharmacy.
A small, lean, lighter skinned Chadian with a six-o'clock shadow beard and a bright smile waves us into his office and orders a young boy to bring "Chai" while he fills our order.
His French isn't that great and when we speak a few words of Arabic he lights up and speaks clearly and slowly so we can understand, peppering his talk with the occasional French or English word.
Apparently, he did all his studies here in Arabic, which is possible, but unusual, even getting his "bac" in Arabic (the French equivalent of a high school diploma). He then studied three years of nursing and three years of pharmacy in Syria.
He mentions that Christians and Muslims are very similar. We nod in agreement. He talks about not drinking alcohol and eating pork. I mention how we don't smoke as well.
I say the most important thing in life is to make it to paradise and he agrees with multiple "inshallahs" (God willing).
We start talking about the holy books and that there is the Tawrat (Torah), the Injil (the Gospel) and the Koran. They all are God's way of communicating with Man.
I mention that the true religion is the religion of Ibrahim (Abraham) he nods.
He asks if we are married. We nod and Sarah points out that Adoum (Adam) had only Hawa (Eve) and not Maryam, Khadidja, etc. as well. He laughs and says that in Islam it is permitted to have 4 wives, but only under special circumstances.
I agree saying that yes in countries hit hard by war, like Chad where women outnumber men, I can understand that, but it's an exception and I laughingly say that there is enough trouble with one woman, why add more? He stretches out his hand to be slapped and grasped in the Chadian way of sharing a joke and laughs along with me.
He agrees, which is why he also only has one wife, besides, life is difficult and who can afford more than one wife anyway?
He then asks if we have any children. We say not yet, and he replies that Allah will give us some, inshallah.
He then calls the boy back and tells him to pour us some more tea as we continue some small talk.
Sarah mentions that we have several Korans at home.
He asks if they're in English or what language.
We say Arabic, English and French. He nods approvingly.
We finish our tea, he helps us haul out the TB meds to our van and we shake hands promising to see each other another day, inshallah.
I somehow have no doubt that I will see him again, whether on earth or not, certainly in paradise.
Sarah and I are off. We run some other errands before being called back to pick up Mahamat and Lamglé. We wander through several dirt road detours through the "suburbs" of N'Djamena (mud brick houses slightly more spread apart than in the "Grande ville") until we come to a mud plastered three roomed house with a ramshackle covered dirt "porch" which Mahamat claims as his. He apologizes saying a huge wind knocked half his wall down last May.
After helping them out onto crutches and onto a mat in the shade we are invited to sit with them. A metal bowl of water is placed before us. I try to ignore the floating things as I bring it slowly to my parched lips. A young boy is sent off for some Cokes and Grapefruit "Top". We then have some rice "boule" with some green leaf and dried fish sauce. I must be starving because as I dig into the sticky rice paste and dip it into the spicy sauce, I actually can't eat it fast enough. It just seems to hit the spot.
We then head off back to the "big city" and stop at Ma Joie's house. Ma Joie is the 8 year old girl, also a relative of Mahamat and Lamglé who also had a right femur fracture that also wasn't healed properly that we also opened and reduced and put in traction. The only difference is that she healed after two months and has been home for over a month already.
We enter a low, dank mud entrance down an open alley past some couches in various stages of fabrication until we turn into an open courtyard. There our shy, cute little friend limps towards us on one crutch. Apparently, she doesn't need it but her grandfather insisted she use it in front of us in case we expected it. We greet all 14 members of the extended family and Ma Joie makes my day by lighting up with a crooked tooth grin when I lay out my hand palm up so she can give me "five". She slaps it hard and soon all the other kids are lining up! Right before we leave, she runs off and brings us each a black plastic bag with some brightly colored African cloth as a present.
She is not only Ma Joie but Notre Joie (our joy)...
Friday, November 28, 2008
Morning
It's early morning and I can't sleep again. This time, though, it's because I'm excited. For the first time in several weeks I'll actually be doing something. My ankle wound that just won't heal has kept me from doing just the bare minimum. I go up to the hospital, quickly see the hospitalized patients, do all the scheduled surgeries and then retire home to elevate my swollen foot. My day revolves around how fast I can get home to make the swelling go down and do a dressing change and take antibiotics. I even got so scared for a few days that I had Sarah start an IV on me and give me IV antibiotics.
This morning, though, my ankle seems to have turned the corner and I'm up, happy to be doing something I want to do. I'm going flying with Gary to N'Djamena. I'd needed to go to N'Djamena for a while, but with my foot, the idea of a long, bumpy ride in the back of a Toyota mini-bus just wasn't that appealing. With Gary's return after a 6 month absence, getting to N'Djamena has turned into a two hour pleasant flight over the African plain.
It's still dark, but since I can't sleep anyway, I get up and fix "breakfast" which consists of frying up some day old rice and beans with little bit of curry. Not a typical American breakfast but sometimes you have to eat for strength and not for sport (as some of my friends used to tell me in the early days when I was first in Tchad).
With the roosters having started their crowing since about 3am, the dogs barking and the drums and dancing having just stopped, the morning is quiet and peaceful with just the lulling, rhythmic sound of crickets breaking the early dawn's silence. I step outside into the desert cold. I quickly go back in and put on a sweatshirt. I pull my small North Face backpack over the sweatshirt and slip on my Crocs.
The ankle is a little stiff, but it feels good to be out on the deep, sandy road towards Bere's laterite airstrip. It's a 2 km walk and I have the village mostly to myself.
An early morning fog rests over the tops of the thatched roof, brownish red clay huts combined with the pungent smoke of wood and dried grass fires. The only ones awake are a few women pounding millet in homemade wooden mortars with 6 feet long wooden pestles. The dooomp, dooomp of the pounding of grain into the base for the typical Chadian breakfast porridge echos across the stillness. A few children are also up trying to chase away the night's chill around hastly gathered grass and stick fires. Their dark faces hidden amidst the white smoke wafting from the incompletely dried weed fires break into toothy grins as they see the "Nasara" walking steadily and gingerly away from the hospital. It's not every day that something this new and exciting happens!
They are mostly dressed in ragged shorts, holey pants and torn t-shirts. It's no wonder they're cold as the dry season has descended upon us leaving us with the extremes of up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit difference between day and night temperatures. The luscious greenness of the rainy season has rapidly evaporated into the brown, dead grass powdery dusty dryness of the majority of the year here in the heart of Africa.
I approach some of them, who eye me warily with looks of mixed curiosity and fear. I extend my hand, palm up. Several of the bigger, braver ones approach to shake hands. I shake my head and show them how to "give me five."
"Tak kebeng (slap my hand)" I encourage them in Nangjere. When they finally get up the courage to try, everyone wants to get in on the action and they all start giggling and laughing. What a privilege to really smack hard the hand of a grown-up, much less a foreigner!
I finally get to the airstrip where the early morning sunrise colors the mostly white plane with a tinge of pink. Gary is testing the oil and fuel and filling up the wing tanks with his bright red cans of Cameroonian gasoline. A few kids have gathered around as usual, but not the usual crowd since it's still so early. After Gary eats a "late" breakfast, we slide into the tiny Cessna loaded up with empty fuel and propane containers and after a short taxi we are soaring up and over where the 10,000 inhabitants of a Chadian county seat disappear quickly into the groves of mango trees with just occasional glimpses of thatched or rarely, tin roofed, houses give us a clue that there's actually a village hidden in this vast plane. We bank over the hospital to get a good aerial view and it also suddenly seems so small and insignificant when seen from on high.
We're on our way to N'Djamena...
This morning, though, my ankle seems to have turned the corner and I'm up, happy to be doing something I want to do. I'm going flying with Gary to N'Djamena. I'd needed to go to N'Djamena for a while, but with my foot, the idea of a long, bumpy ride in the back of a Toyota mini-bus just wasn't that appealing. With Gary's return after a 6 month absence, getting to N'Djamena has turned into a two hour pleasant flight over the African plain.
It's still dark, but since I can't sleep anyway, I get up and fix "breakfast" which consists of frying up some day old rice and beans with little bit of curry. Not a typical American breakfast but sometimes you have to eat for strength and not for sport (as some of my friends used to tell me in the early days when I was first in Tchad).
With the roosters having started their crowing since about 3am, the dogs barking and the drums and dancing having just stopped, the morning is quiet and peaceful with just the lulling, rhythmic sound of crickets breaking the early dawn's silence. I step outside into the desert cold. I quickly go back in and put on a sweatshirt. I pull my small North Face backpack over the sweatshirt and slip on my Crocs.
The ankle is a little stiff, but it feels good to be out on the deep, sandy road towards Bere's laterite airstrip. It's a 2 km walk and I have the village mostly to myself.
An early morning fog rests over the tops of the thatched roof, brownish red clay huts combined with the pungent smoke of wood and dried grass fires. The only ones awake are a few women pounding millet in homemade wooden mortars with 6 feet long wooden pestles. The dooomp, dooomp of the pounding of grain into the base for the typical Chadian breakfast porridge echos across the stillness. A few children are also up trying to chase away the night's chill around hastly gathered grass and stick fires. Their dark faces hidden amidst the white smoke wafting from the incompletely dried weed fires break into toothy grins as they see the "Nasara" walking steadily and gingerly away from the hospital. It's not every day that something this new and exciting happens!
They are mostly dressed in ragged shorts, holey pants and torn t-shirts. It's no wonder they're cold as the dry season has descended upon us leaving us with the extremes of up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit difference between day and night temperatures. The luscious greenness of the rainy season has rapidly evaporated into the brown, dead grass powdery dusty dryness of the majority of the year here in the heart of Africa.
I approach some of them, who eye me warily with looks of mixed curiosity and fear. I extend my hand, palm up. Several of the bigger, braver ones approach to shake hands. I shake my head and show them how to "give me five."
"Tak kebeng (slap my hand)" I encourage them in Nangjere. When they finally get up the courage to try, everyone wants to get in on the action and they all start giggling and laughing. What a privilege to really smack hard the hand of a grown-up, much less a foreigner!
I finally get to the airstrip where the early morning sunrise colors the mostly white plane with a tinge of pink. Gary is testing the oil and fuel and filling up the wing tanks with his bright red cans of Cameroonian gasoline. A few kids have gathered around as usual, but not the usual crowd since it's still so early. After Gary eats a "late" breakfast, we slide into the tiny Cessna loaded up with empty fuel and propane containers and after a short taxi we are soaring up and over where the 10,000 inhabitants of a Chadian county seat disappear quickly into the groves of mango trees with just occasional glimpses of thatched or rarely, tin roofed, houses give us a clue that there's actually a village hidden in this vast plane. We bank over the hospital to get a good aerial view and it also suddenly seems so small and insignificant when seen from on high.
We're on our way to N'Djamena...
Thanksgiving
It all started with a little lying. I had too, otherwise I would've spoiled the surprise.
Monday, I went to Moundou to check up on the remodeling project for our new utpatient surgery center in Chad's second largest city. The route is simple: follow the bumpy, dirt road to Kelo and turn left onto the paved road until you hit Moundou. In Kelo, as we turned left, I saw the post office. I decided to stop. I found 14 packages waiting for our student missionaries. I paid for them all, loaded to car and continued to Moundou.
The project is going well, I talked over a few details with the builder and then he joined us for the ride back to Bere so he could look over our existing operating room to better understand what we were shooting for. It was when we were back on the road to Bere that I had the wonderful idea for my surprise. Little did I know how much deception I would have to employ in order for it to succeed.
The first thing was to swear our driver, Levi, to secrecy. We then had to quickly unload the packages into my house without the student missionaries seeing them. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving but American holidays tend to get neglected or rolled into one, I decided to turn it into an early Christmas surprise. I wasn't going to tell them I'd picked up their packages sent from home, not until Thanksgiving morning.
I didn't count on our volunteers' desperation to have those goodies.
The very next day, Stephan came to me to explain how he'd arranged everything with our Administrator, Andre, to have the day off so he could take a motorcycle taxi to Kelo to see if they had any packages. They were all expecting some that would have things to make Thanksgiving dinner with.
I put on my severest, coldest boss face.
"Stephan, did you come here to work, or to get packages. You should've told me yesterday. I passed right by the post-office and could've easily checked to see if there was anything for you guys. We're really busy right now, besides, how are you going to get a bunch of packages back on a motorcycle. It's just not a good idea. I'll probably be making another trip early next week, I can pick them up then."
Stephan's face falls, but he has no choice but to accept.
"Well, ok, but Kristin was going to go with me, maybe she can just go. She's not scheduled till this evening so she wouldn't miss work."
Thinking quickly, I'm amazed at how easily I continue the deception. "Stephan, do you really think it's a good idea for a girl to go by herself to Kelo? It's just not very smart. It'll be even harder for her to carry all those packages back. Plus, this is Chad, it could be dangerous." I'm lying through my teeth, but somehow keep a straight, concerned face.
Stephan turns sadly away to go back to his accounting office. I smile inwardly at my success. It is short lived as lies tend to pile on top of each other; once you start it's hard to stop.
I have to repeat a bunch more to Kristin later on as she is unwilling to accept Stephan's explanation and feels that if she talks to me personally, maybe this mean boss will change his mind. I hold firm and convince her it's just not a good idea. Besides, there's other things already planned and we won't really have a real Thanksgiving anyway, we might as well just wait and have our Thanksgiving next week sometime. She's crestfallen but also has to accept.
Tuesday night, I find myself chatting with Kristin and Ansley and, unfortunately, they've come up with a solution that I can't lie my way out of. I'm forced to spill the beans. They are excited but agree with me to keep it a secret from the others. Ansley joins to lying as she announces to the others on Wednesday that due to her 6 episodes of explosive diarrhea the night before she's just not up to a trip to Kelo and Emily shouldn't go by herself.
Early Thursday morning, I pull the 14 packages and numerous letters out of my closet and carry them over to the SM's common room in the middle house. I leave a note that says "ho, ho, ho, merry thanksgiving, merry thanksgiving." And it turns out to be just that...after a long day at work.
Work starts out with rounds on a completely full hospital with no beds to spare. Then, I have a tubal ligation, a D&C/tubal ligation combo, a rectal polyp to remove on an 8 year old Arab boy, a bilateral inguinal hernia repair with mosquito net, another emergency D&C for an incomplete spontaneous abortion and finally finish at 4:30pm just in time to go to Gilbert's going away party that Jason has organized.
I slip into the courtyard where many of the staff and Gilbert's friends are already seated on a variety of chairs and stools and mats. I slip off my Crocs and settle onto a mat. My ankle is aching a little and somewhat swollen after a long day upright in the OR, but it's not too bad. I exhange pleasantries with Job and Koumakoy and nod at Simeon and Abel who I've spent all day with in surgery. Gilbert slides onto the mat next to me and we have some decent small talk as Jason serves us the best "bouille" I've had in Chad. Zachee, our cook, is the best and Jason contracted him for the feast. The "bouille" is a rice porridge with milk, sugar, cinnamon and peanut paste. I grab the crude metal bowl from Jason and slurp it up without a spoon.
The second course is either roasted goat or chicken in a tomato sauce with boiled sweet potatoes, all served over mushy rice. It's quite tasty, but I'm trying to save room for Thanksgiving dinner later.
At 6pm, we all head to my house to prepare the feast. We have invited Gary and Wendy and their volunteers (Steve, Jeremy and Annie) as well our our 6 student missionaries, Maria (our Danish volunteer) and Sarah and I. Jacob's mom has sent 5 packages stuffed with everything needed. The menu is impressive: Fri-Chik, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and relish, anti-pasta salad, stuffing, spiced apple cider, candied yams, and a pumpkin pie spice squash dessert with real whipped cream! Gary and Wendy add some real (not powder) mashed potatoes, more gravy, a cranberry-like hibiscus flower sauce, and some stuffing made from scratch. Jeremy and Annie bring a fresh garden salad of tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and sprouts; fresh squeezed lemonade; and boiled beets.
Jacob's mom has also sent Thanksgiving-themed plates, napkins and decorations and with the half-cut into pumpkin-like squash in the center of the table we're only missing NFL football to make it feel like a real American holiday.
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Right before eating, Sarah comes over to tell me that she's already hospitalized 5 kids with malaria, 3 of them with severe anemia needing blood transfusions. Luckily, Samedi is on with her until 9pm so they're managing, but the hospital has been filled back up despite being cleared out by me in the morning. She refuses my offer to eat with us, saying she'd rather I just brought her something later.
We all sit around the table and go around with each person saying one thing they're thankful for for each of the 5 kernels of corn placed before them. We pray and then we chow down.
Just as I'm finishing my overloaded plate (the first one done of course) Hortance, the midwife, comes knocking to tell me about a woman, 8 months pregnant with vaginal bleeding referred from the health center 2 days ago but just now arriving. She is severly anemic with a hemoglobin of 4.8 g/dl and has a placenta previa where the placenta wants to come out before the baby. I think I find a fetal heart beat so we quickly resuscitate her with two large bore IV's and a lot of IV fluids, give her anti-biotics, and take her to the OR. Fortunately, her blood type is AB + making her a universal recipient (i.e. she can take blood from anyone) so we have both her brother and father give blood while we prep her for surgery.
We start the first bag of blood running as we pull out a dead baby with skin already peeling off meaning he's been gone for a few days. Fortunately, there's not much bleeding and we quickly close her up as the second bag runs in. Her heartbeat is almost normal now and her blood pressure has come up. We wheel her into the wards almost running over some Arab women who've spread their sleeping mats right across the entrance and then are forced to leave her on the gurney for the night since there are no available beds.
I come home at about 10pm and we play Settler of Catan and Citadels until almost 2 in the morning when I fall into a deep, contented sleep.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, I went to Moundou to check up on the remodeling project for our new utpatient surgery center in Chad's second largest city. The route is simple: follow the bumpy, dirt road to Kelo and turn left onto the paved road until you hit Moundou. In Kelo, as we turned left, I saw the post office. I decided to stop. I found 14 packages waiting for our student missionaries. I paid for them all, loaded to car and continued to Moundou.
The project is going well, I talked over a few details with the builder and then he joined us for the ride back to Bere so he could look over our existing operating room to better understand what we were shooting for. It was when we were back on the road to Bere that I had the wonderful idea for my surprise. Little did I know how much deception I would have to employ in order for it to succeed.
The first thing was to swear our driver, Levi, to secrecy. We then had to quickly unload the packages into my house without the student missionaries seeing them. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving but American holidays tend to get neglected or rolled into one, I decided to turn it into an early Christmas surprise. I wasn't going to tell them I'd picked up their packages sent from home, not until Thanksgiving morning.
I didn't count on our volunteers' desperation to have those goodies.
The very next day, Stephan came to me to explain how he'd arranged everything with our Administrator, Andre, to have the day off so he could take a motorcycle taxi to Kelo to see if they had any packages. They were all expecting some that would have things to make Thanksgiving dinner with.
I put on my severest, coldest boss face.
"Stephan, did you come here to work, or to get packages. You should've told me yesterday. I passed right by the post-office and could've easily checked to see if there was anything for you guys. We're really busy right now, besides, how are you going to get a bunch of packages back on a motorcycle. It's just not a good idea. I'll probably be making another trip early next week, I can pick them up then."
Stephan's face falls, but he has no choice but to accept.
"Well, ok, but Kristin was going to go with me, maybe she can just go. She's not scheduled till this evening so she wouldn't miss work."
Thinking quickly, I'm amazed at how easily I continue the deception. "Stephan, do you really think it's a good idea for a girl to go by herself to Kelo? It's just not very smart. It'll be even harder for her to carry all those packages back. Plus, this is Chad, it could be dangerous." I'm lying through my teeth, but somehow keep a straight, concerned face.
Stephan turns sadly away to go back to his accounting office. I smile inwardly at my success. It is short lived as lies tend to pile on top of each other; once you start it's hard to stop.
I have to repeat a bunch more to Kristin later on as she is unwilling to accept Stephan's explanation and feels that if she talks to me personally, maybe this mean boss will change his mind. I hold firm and convince her it's just not a good idea. Besides, there's other things already planned and we won't really have a real Thanksgiving anyway, we might as well just wait and have our Thanksgiving next week sometime. She's crestfallen but also has to accept.
Tuesday night, I find myself chatting with Kristin and Ansley and, unfortunately, they've come up with a solution that I can't lie my way out of. I'm forced to spill the beans. They are excited but agree with me to keep it a secret from the others. Ansley joins to lying as she announces to the others on Wednesday that due to her 6 episodes of explosive diarrhea the night before she's just not up to a trip to Kelo and Emily shouldn't go by herself.
Early Thursday morning, I pull the 14 packages and numerous letters out of my closet and carry them over to the SM's common room in the middle house. I leave a note that says "ho, ho, ho, merry thanksgiving, merry thanksgiving." And it turns out to be just that...after a long day at work.
Work starts out with rounds on a completely full hospital with no beds to spare. Then, I have a tubal ligation, a D&C/tubal ligation combo, a rectal polyp to remove on an 8 year old Arab boy, a bilateral inguinal hernia repair with mosquito net, another emergency D&C for an incomplete spontaneous abortion and finally finish at 4:30pm just in time to go to Gilbert's going away party that Jason has organized.
I slip into the courtyard where many of the staff and Gilbert's friends are already seated on a variety of chairs and stools and mats. I slip off my Crocs and settle onto a mat. My ankle is aching a little and somewhat swollen after a long day upright in the OR, but it's not too bad. I exhange pleasantries with Job and Koumakoy and nod at Simeon and Abel who I've spent all day with in surgery. Gilbert slides onto the mat next to me and we have some decent small talk as Jason serves us the best "bouille" I've had in Chad. Zachee, our cook, is the best and Jason contracted him for the feast. The "bouille" is a rice porridge with milk, sugar, cinnamon and peanut paste. I grab the crude metal bowl from Jason and slurp it up without a spoon.
The second course is either roasted goat or chicken in a tomato sauce with boiled sweet potatoes, all served over mushy rice. It's quite tasty, but I'm trying to save room for Thanksgiving dinner later.
At 6pm, we all head to my house to prepare the feast. We have invited Gary and Wendy and their volunteers (Steve, Jeremy and Annie) as well our our 6 student missionaries, Maria (our Danish volunteer) and Sarah and I. Jacob's mom has sent 5 packages stuffed with everything needed. The menu is impressive: Fri-Chik, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and relish, anti-pasta salad, stuffing, spiced apple cider, candied yams, and a pumpkin pie spice squash dessert with real whipped cream! Gary and Wendy add some real (not powder) mashed potatoes, more gravy, a cranberry-like hibiscus flower sauce, and some stuffing made from scratch. Jeremy and Annie bring a fresh garden salad of tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and sprouts; fresh squeezed lemonade; and boiled beets.
Jacob's mom has also sent Thanksgiving-themed plates, napkins and decorations and with the half-cut into pumpkin-like squash in the center of the table we're only missing NFL football to make it feel like a real American holiday.
.jpg)
Right before eating, Sarah comes over to tell me that she's already hospitalized 5 kids with malaria, 3 of them with severe anemia needing blood transfusions. Luckily, Samedi is on with her until 9pm so they're managing, but the hospital has been filled back up despite being cleared out by me in the morning. She refuses my offer to eat with us, saying she'd rather I just brought her something later.
We all sit around the table and go around with each person saying one thing they're thankful for for each of the 5 kernels of corn placed before them. We pray and then we chow down.
Just as I'm finishing my overloaded plate (the first one done of course) Hortance, the midwife, comes knocking to tell me about a woman, 8 months pregnant with vaginal bleeding referred from the health center 2 days ago but just now arriving. She is severly anemic with a hemoglobin of 4.8 g/dl and has a placenta previa where the placenta wants to come out before the baby. I think I find a fetal heart beat so we quickly resuscitate her with two large bore IV's and a lot of IV fluids, give her anti-biotics, and take her to the OR. Fortunately, her blood type is AB + making her a universal recipient (i.e. she can take blood from anyone) so we have both her brother and father give blood while we prep her for surgery.
We start the first bag of blood running as we pull out a dead baby with skin already peeling off meaning he's been gone for a few days. Fortunately, there's not much bleeding and we quickly close her up as the second bag runs in. Her heartbeat is almost normal now and her blood pressure has come up. We wheel her into the wards almost running over some Arab women who've spread their sleeping mats right across the entrance and then are forced to leave her on the gurney for the night since there are no available beds.
I come home at about 10pm and we play Settler of Catan and Citadels until almost 2 in the morning when I fall into a deep, contented sleep.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Mistake
Have you ever been glad you made a mistake? I was sure the elderly man had a gallbladder problem. I mean, I'm no ultrasound expert, but there was obviously something inside that gall bladder that shouldn't have been there. Besides, he was complaining of pain right over that spot that was worse when he ate. And his bilirubin was elevated, another sign that could point to gall bladder problem.
I was hesitant to operate, though, because he was a friend. In fact, he is the chief of our neighborhood here in Bere. Totho Timothée. His brother has AIDS and is a motorcycle taximan who takes us often back and forth to Kélo when our car isn't running or the rainy season makes the roads all but impassible for anything except a moto.
But, I finally decided it was the right thing to do. I was sure he needed an operation for his gallbladder. I was wrong.
I stand to his right side. Franklin has given him a "high spinal" anesthetic so I can make a somewhat relaxed incision right below his right ribs. We pray and I start cutting with Abel and Jacques assisting. I've decided to splurge today, since it's a gall bladder, and have set up the electrocautery. Soon the smell of barbecuing human flesh fills the room as I burn through the abdominal muscles before entering the peritoneal cavity.
We also are using the air conditioner since it's about 110 degrees fahrenheit outside. Jacques, however, having just recently arrived from Togo where it's relatively cooler, is having a hard time as the sweat runs in rivulets down his face. I usually don't notice until afterwards when I pull off my gown and find my scrubs are soaked with my own sweat.
I have Abel retract the liver gently and I get a good look at the gallbladder. It looks normal. I pinch it between my fingers. It feels normal. I'm starting to feel sheepish. Especially since on entering the abdomen I found a lot of ascites fluid and now I see that he has advanced liver cirrhosis. Of course the bilirubin was elevated! I'm starting to realize I was wrong to operate on him and it could've maybe even endangered his life. Better close and get out of here before I do more harm.
Then I notice something out of the corner of my eye that gives me pause.
"Jacques, pull the stomach back a little again. Yeah, just like that."
I see a small black spot on the first part of the small intestine coming right out of the stomach. Before my brain can even formulate it's idea of what it is, the spot confirms itself by opening up right before my eyes and etting out a stream of clear, gooey liquid.
A duodenal ulcer just perforated before my very eyes! Abel quickly aspirates up the stomach acid with the suction tip and I call for some suture.
I place some interrupted sutures along the edge of the ulcer and leave them untied till I have a whole row ready to close the wound. I then pull some of the omentum back from the stomach edge and lay it across the perforation. I tie the sutures across the omentum patching up the hole. I irrigate and suction and then close up the muscle, fascia and skin of the abdominal wall.
I've just witnessed a miracle to save our friend, Timothée's life. If I hadn't mistakenly misread the ultrasound I wouldn't have operated. If I hadn't mistakenly thought it was the gallbladder I wouldn't have made the perfect incision to allow me to see and close the ulcer. If I'd have waited half and hour more it would have perforated letting stomach acid all in the stomach to burn and irritate the intestines and cause all kinds of complications. If it had happened a day or two before I did the operation, he'd probably be dead...especially with having already liver cirrhosis.
Sometimes it's ok to make a mistake!
.JPG)
I was hesitant to operate, though, because he was a friend. In fact, he is the chief of our neighborhood here in Bere. Totho Timothée. His brother has AIDS and is a motorcycle taximan who takes us often back and forth to Kélo when our car isn't running or the rainy season makes the roads all but impassible for anything except a moto.
But, I finally decided it was the right thing to do. I was sure he needed an operation for his gallbladder. I was wrong.
I stand to his right side. Franklin has given him a "high spinal" anesthetic so I can make a somewhat relaxed incision right below his right ribs. We pray and I start cutting with Abel and Jacques assisting. I've decided to splurge today, since it's a gall bladder, and have set up the electrocautery. Soon the smell of barbecuing human flesh fills the room as I burn through the abdominal muscles before entering the peritoneal cavity.
We also are using the air conditioner since it's about 110 degrees fahrenheit outside. Jacques, however, having just recently arrived from Togo where it's relatively cooler, is having a hard time as the sweat runs in rivulets down his face. I usually don't notice until afterwards when I pull off my gown and find my scrubs are soaked with my own sweat.
I have Abel retract the liver gently and I get a good look at the gallbladder. It looks normal. I pinch it between my fingers. It feels normal. I'm starting to feel sheepish. Especially since on entering the abdomen I found a lot of ascites fluid and now I see that he has advanced liver cirrhosis. Of course the bilirubin was elevated! I'm starting to realize I was wrong to operate on him and it could've maybe even endangered his life. Better close and get out of here before I do more harm.
Then I notice something out of the corner of my eye that gives me pause.
"Jacques, pull the stomach back a little again. Yeah, just like that."
I see a small black spot on the first part of the small intestine coming right out of the stomach. Before my brain can even formulate it's idea of what it is, the spot confirms itself by opening up right before my eyes and etting out a stream of clear, gooey liquid.
A duodenal ulcer just perforated before my very eyes! Abel quickly aspirates up the stomach acid with the suction tip and I call for some suture.
I place some interrupted sutures along the edge of the ulcer and leave them untied till I have a whole row ready to close the wound. I then pull some of the omentum back from the stomach edge and lay it across the perforation. I tie the sutures across the omentum patching up the hole. I irrigate and suction and then close up the muscle, fascia and skin of the abdominal wall.
I've just witnessed a miracle to save our friend, Timothée's life. If I hadn't mistakenly misread the ultrasound I wouldn't have operated. If I hadn't mistakenly thought it was the gallbladder I wouldn't have made the perfect incision to allow me to see and close the ulcer. If I'd have waited half and hour more it would have perforated letting stomach acid all in the stomach to burn and irritate the intestines and cause all kinds of complications. If it had happened a day or two before I did the operation, he'd probably be dead...especially with having already liver cirrhosis.
Sometimes it's ok to make a mistake!
.JPG)
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Too late
I squat on the ground outside the operating room. A thin Muslim man squats in front of me, his green Arabic robe pulled tightly across his knees as he hugs them with his arms. He is staring at the blue basin between us. The insides of the basin is covered with a blood-soaked, brightly-patterned yellow wrap around skirt. I lift up the cloth with a gloved hand covered with dried blood. Underneath is a dead infant with a huge head (hydrocephalos). His blank eyes stare up at us as his neck bends back at an impossible angle. Underneath is the placenta still attached to the child by the umbilical cord. All is cold, lifeless and bloody.
I do my best to explain to him in Arabic what happened.
"The child, dead, when arrived, dead already. The head, big, not come out. The house of the child broken, the child come out here (point to my stomach). Blood come out, a lot, here also. The woman there, she not have much blood when she arrive not have. Si there is not much blood, she found death."
"Both of them, the two of them, both dead?" The man asks in disbelief.
"Yes, both dead, all dead," I repeat a million images of the last two hours flashing through my head...
"Doctor, doctor!"
I slowly stumble out of a deep sleep and a pleasant dream. "Yeah, what is it?"
"It's me, Augustin, I have a case to present to you."
"Ok, I'm coming." I pull on a pair of scrub bottoms and feel my way through the dark to the door and out onto the porch. Augustin is standing outside the screen door with a headlamp and a "carnet" or portable medical record.
"There's a woman, referred, in labor for two days..." Augustin stumbles through presenting the woman. He is one of our laziest nurses and often does as little as possible. I'm a little irritated.
"Whoa, whoa! Start over, give me that!" I take the labor and delivery sheet. I glance quickly over it and it's incomplete. I see the vital signs, heart rate 60 bpm, blood pressure 100/70, temperature 37 degrees Celsius. I'll regret later not noticing how generically normal they were.
"What? What's going on?" A voice comes from the room next to us where Jacques, our newly arrived doc fresh from medical school in Mali, has been sleeping.
"I'm talking to Dr. James," replies Augustin. Jacques quickly appears outside just as I'm telling Augustin to go get more information and come back to see me with the chart completely filled out.
As Augustin and Jacques walk off together I almost yell after him to check a hemoglobin. I catch myself, thinking I'll be over to see her shortly anyway. The second thing I later regret not doing.
I go back to my room and decide to lie down, after all it's been a long week filled with tons of surgeries and the training seminar I've been doing for the village health care workers on HIV and tuberculosis. I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes until Augustin and Jacques get back. The third thing I later regret.
"Docteur? Docteur?" The soft voice of Jacques floats across my subconscious. I go to the door. I glance up at the clock. It reads 4:25 am. I didn't look at the clock when Augustin first came, but I did hear the fridge running which it's programmed to do 4 times a day for an hour at a time: at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight. It's been 3-4 hours since I saw Augustin and Jacques walking off together. A strange sense of foreboding falls over me.
"I've examined the woman and I think she has a ruptureed uterus."
"Go call Abel and Dr. Franklin and I'll be right there."
I pull on a scrub top, grab my keys and I'm out the door. I stop by the other house real quick to make sure Franklin's awake and then make my way across the compound to the labor and delivery room just past the OR.
As I walk in the room and glance at the patient, my heart skips a beat. A tiny Arabic woman lies stretched out on the table with one knee bent in the air. Blood has pooled between her legs. An IV with Glucose and I quickly assume Oxytocin is dripping into her left arm. Her thin abdomen is grossly distorted with several large, not normal pregnancy looking lumps. But what arrests my attention is when I look at her face.
Her head is flopped to one side and her eyes are rolled back in her head. She is pale and her only breaths are occasional sighs. She is on death's door and I see it instantly. I quickly feel for her heartbeat which is present but slow. I flip down her eyelids with my finger and my blood freezes. Her conjonctiva is white. She has practically bled to death in our hospital.
"Augustin, quick call the lab, we need blood! Abre, run and get me some Ringers!" Franklin arrives and quickly starts looking for a better IV. Then she stops breathing and I start chest compressions. Franklin has found an IV in her neck and we get fluids running. Abel has arrived and we take turns with chest compressions.
"Franklin, what about the monitor from the OR?" He runs quickly and arrives. We get no blood pressure and a weak O2 sat.
Finally, after what seems like hours the lab guy arrives.
"Abre, what blood type are you?"
"O positive."
"Mathieu, just check to see if she's positive or negative and if she's positive Abre will give."
She is B positive and Jacques and Abre run off to donate a bag of blood each. Augustin is B positive and refuses to give.
Abel and I keep up the chest compressions while Franklin guards her airway.
We get the first bag which is only a third full of Abre's blood. We hang it up.
"Abel, you and Abre get the stretcher and lets take her to the OR."
We flop her bloodied body onto the stretcher and Abel and Augustin carry her quickly to the OR while I continue chest compressions and Franklin carries the blood and IVs.
We get her all set up on the OR table with blood splashed everywhere. Still no heartbeat so we continue our ressucitation hoping that if we can keep her oxygen circulating until we replace her blood loss maybe we can save her.
We try some Atropine to start her heart. We try shocking her. Nothing. We have no Adrenaline. Then I remember we have some spinal kits. I open up two kits so we can use the adrenaline inside. Nothing works so we continue CPR.
Finally, a third bag of blood is running and I decide to take out the baby. We slosh Betadine on the belly, I quickly open up a C-section kit and put on a gown and sterile gloves. One slash and I'm in the belly. I cut the baby's face but he's dead already. His head is 5 times normal size with hydrocephalus. That's why he couldn't come out. Her uterus is in tatters. I pull out the baby and placenta. Place some clamps across what's left of the uterus and cut it out. I tie off the clamps, dump some Celox in the pelvis and hold pressure for 5 minutes. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes. All the donated blood is in, we've been working on her for almost 2 hours and she still is flatlined. I tell the guys to stop CPR, I sew up the belly and I go out to tell the husband.
As I'm kneeling in front of the Muslim husband, having just told him his wife and the unborn child between us are dead, I'm not sure how he'll react. A brief image flashes through my mind of the violence of two weeks ago with Arabs stabbing and killing Africans and vice versa and the chaos in the hospital trying to save as many as possible. But there is no revenge taken on me today. Instead, a gentle chanting in classic Arabic rises from the depths of his sorrowed heart.
"Illallah le Allah wa rassulloh Mahamat." The Muslim creed repeated over and over seems to soothe the sorrow. "Al hamdullilah" (Allah be praised) breaks in occasionally. A fellow Muslim from Lai comes and kneels down beside him reciting some Koranic verses in a low voice.
"Find me some brothers of Islam here. All the believers here in the hospital." The other Muslim goes off and soon a small group of robed and turbaned men surround us.
I ask him if he'd like to see his wife. He nods and we go into the OR where Abel and Jacques have been cleaning and covering the body. A portly Arab with a beige robe and white turban accompanies us. The woman is lying on the stretcher covered with a black, Muslim woman's cloth with intricate Arabic designs in gold woven into the fabric. The husband uncovers the wife's face and asks for water.
I get some water from the faucet and bring it to him in a small basin.
"Put a little over my hands," he asks me in Arabic.
I pour water over his right hand and he uses it to gently wash and wipe down his dead wife's face closing the eyes. The other Arab also moves his hand down the face to close the eyes and then they cover her back up. As we take her out to the morgue I hear some low sobs coming back from the OR.
15 minutes later, the brothers from the Mosque have arrived and I carefully explain in broken Arabic again what has happened.
"Xalas, inshallah, mashallah, al hamdullilah" come out in intervals from all resent. The accept and comfort and then take the body off to be appropriately buried as soon as possible in the Muslim fashion.
I go home.
I do my best to explain to him in Arabic what happened.
"The child, dead, when arrived, dead already. The head, big, not come out. The house of the child broken, the child come out here (point to my stomach). Blood come out, a lot, here also. The woman there, she not have much blood when she arrive not have. Si there is not much blood, she found death."
"Both of them, the two of them, both dead?" The man asks in disbelief.
"Yes, both dead, all dead," I repeat a million images of the last two hours flashing through my head...
"Doctor, doctor!"
I slowly stumble out of a deep sleep and a pleasant dream. "Yeah, what is it?"
"It's me, Augustin, I have a case to present to you."
"Ok, I'm coming." I pull on a pair of scrub bottoms and feel my way through the dark to the door and out onto the porch. Augustin is standing outside the screen door with a headlamp and a "carnet" or portable medical record.
"There's a woman, referred, in labor for two days..." Augustin stumbles through presenting the woman. He is one of our laziest nurses and often does as little as possible. I'm a little irritated.
"Whoa, whoa! Start over, give me that!" I take the labor and delivery sheet. I glance quickly over it and it's incomplete. I see the vital signs, heart rate 60 bpm, blood pressure 100/70, temperature 37 degrees Celsius. I'll regret later not noticing how generically normal they were.
"What? What's going on?" A voice comes from the room next to us where Jacques, our newly arrived doc fresh from medical school in Mali, has been sleeping.
"I'm talking to Dr. James," replies Augustin. Jacques quickly appears outside just as I'm telling Augustin to go get more information and come back to see me with the chart completely filled out.
As Augustin and Jacques walk off together I almost yell after him to check a hemoglobin. I catch myself, thinking I'll be over to see her shortly anyway. The second thing I later regret not doing.
I go back to my room and decide to lie down, after all it's been a long week filled with tons of surgeries and the training seminar I've been doing for the village health care workers on HIV and tuberculosis. I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes until Augustin and Jacques get back. The third thing I later regret.
"Docteur? Docteur?" The soft voice of Jacques floats across my subconscious. I go to the door. I glance up at the clock. It reads 4:25 am. I didn't look at the clock when Augustin first came, but I did hear the fridge running which it's programmed to do 4 times a day for an hour at a time: at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight. It's been 3-4 hours since I saw Augustin and Jacques walking off together. A strange sense of foreboding falls over me.
"I've examined the woman and I think she has a ruptureed uterus."
"Go call Abel and Dr. Franklin and I'll be right there."
I pull on a scrub top, grab my keys and I'm out the door. I stop by the other house real quick to make sure Franklin's awake and then make my way across the compound to the labor and delivery room just past the OR.
As I walk in the room and glance at the patient, my heart skips a beat. A tiny Arabic woman lies stretched out on the table with one knee bent in the air. Blood has pooled between her legs. An IV with Glucose and I quickly assume Oxytocin is dripping into her left arm. Her thin abdomen is grossly distorted with several large, not normal pregnancy looking lumps. But what arrests my attention is when I look at her face.
Her head is flopped to one side and her eyes are rolled back in her head. She is pale and her only breaths are occasional sighs. She is on death's door and I see it instantly. I quickly feel for her heartbeat which is present but slow. I flip down her eyelids with my finger and my blood freezes. Her conjonctiva is white. She has practically bled to death in our hospital.
"Augustin, quick call the lab, we need blood! Abre, run and get me some Ringers!" Franklin arrives and quickly starts looking for a better IV. Then she stops breathing and I start chest compressions. Franklin has found an IV in her neck and we get fluids running. Abel has arrived and we take turns with chest compressions.
"Franklin, what about the monitor from the OR?" He runs quickly and arrives. We get no blood pressure and a weak O2 sat.
Finally, after what seems like hours the lab guy arrives.
"Abre, what blood type are you?"
"O positive."
"Mathieu, just check to see if she's positive or negative and if she's positive Abre will give."
She is B positive and Jacques and Abre run off to donate a bag of blood each. Augustin is B positive and refuses to give.
Abel and I keep up the chest compressions while Franklin guards her airway.
We get the first bag which is only a third full of Abre's blood. We hang it up.
"Abel, you and Abre get the stretcher and lets take her to the OR."
We flop her bloodied body onto the stretcher and Abel and Augustin carry her quickly to the OR while I continue chest compressions and Franklin carries the blood and IVs.
We get her all set up on the OR table with blood splashed everywhere. Still no heartbeat so we continue our ressucitation hoping that if we can keep her oxygen circulating until we replace her blood loss maybe we can save her.
We try some Atropine to start her heart. We try shocking her. Nothing. We have no Adrenaline. Then I remember we have some spinal kits. I open up two kits so we can use the adrenaline inside. Nothing works so we continue CPR.
Finally, a third bag of blood is running and I decide to take out the baby. We slosh Betadine on the belly, I quickly open up a C-section kit and put on a gown and sterile gloves. One slash and I'm in the belly. I cut the baby's face but he's dead already. His head is 5 times normal size with hydrocephalus. That's why he couldn't come out. Her uterus is in tatters. I pull out the baby and placenta. Place some clamps across what's left of the uterus and cut it out. I tie off the clamps, dump some Celox in the pelvis and hold pressure for 5 minutes. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes. All the donated blood is in, we've been working on her for almost 2 hours and she still is flatlined. I tell the guys to stop CPR, I sew up the belly and I go out to tell the husband.
As I'm kneeling in front of the Muslim husband, having just told him his wife and the unborn child between us are dead, I'm not sure how he'll react. A brief image flashes through my mind of the violence of two weeks ago with Arabs stabbing and killing Africans and vice versa and the chaos in the hospital trying to save as many as possible. But there is no revenge taken on me today. Instead, a gentle chanting in classic Arabic rises from the depths of his sorrowed heart.
"Illallah le Allah wa rassulloh Mahamat." The Muslim creed repeated over and over seems to soothe the sorrow. "Al hamdullilah" (Allah be praised) breaks in occasionally. A fellow Muslim from Lai comes and kneels down beside him reciting some Koranic verses in a low voice.
"Find me some brothers of Islam here. All the believers here in the hospital." The other Muslim goes off and soon a small group of robed and turbaned men surround us.
I ask him if he'd like to see his wife. He nods and we go into the OR where Abel and Jacques have been cleaning and covering the body. A portly Arab with a beige robe and white turban accompanies us. The woman is lying on the stretcher covered with a black, Muslim woman's cloth with intricate Arabic designs in gold woven into the fabric. The husband uncovers the wife's face and asks for water.
I get some water from the faucet and bring it to him in a small basin.
"Put a little over my hands," he asks me in Arabic.
I pour water over his right hand and he uses it to gently wash and wipe down his dead wife's face closing the eyes. The other Arab also moves his hand down the face to close the eyes and then they cover her back up. As we take her out to the morgue I hear some low sobs coming back from the OR.
15 minutes later, the brothers from the Mosque have arrived and I carefully explain in broken Arabic again what has happened.
"Xalas, inshallah, mashallah, al hamdullilah" come out in intervals from all resent. The accept and comfort and then take the body off to be appropriately buried as soon as possible in the Muslim fashion.
I go home.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Cripple
My life as a cripple began insignificantly enough.
As far as I can tell, it started with digging that latrine last Sunday morning. I must have accidently hit the inside of my right ankle with the pickax. Whatever the cause, by Sunday night it was swollen and painful. By Monday morning, I could barely walk and it was red and angry. I tried to go to work, hobbled around on lightning rounds before I couldn't take the pain.
At the same time, I was hit with the worst attack of Malaria since the first time I got it in 2004. By the time I hobbled home my muscles were twitching so badly and my teeth chattering so hard you'd of thought I was in the midst of a Danish blizzard instead of 110 degree sub-saharan Africa.
I slammed down 8 anti-malarial combo pills straight in from China and huddled under the blankets desperately trying to fight off the cold.
Did I mention my ankle was killing me?
After a day or two, the malaria was better, but as of last night, I hadn't walked in a week.
I'd been hoping there wouldn't be any surgical emergencies as you can imagine. Despite two symphysiotomies performed resting my bum leg on a stool on wheels in order to bring in two floppy, but eventually revivable newborns, things had been relatively calm.
Until last night...
After a leisurely Saturday lounging around with my foot elevated to control the edema listening to David Asherick talk about living in the End of Time, I found myself strangely drawn to the window around 5pm that evening. I picked up my crutches (hand made in Chad and borrowed from a bed-ridden patient) and limped over to the screen door facing the fence between us and the Emergency Room.
It was hard to see because of the two screens and the distance between me and the action, but I saw a group of people gathering hurredly. A couple of push carts moved back and forth. Two people were carrying a stretcher.
I was not surprised to see one of the Intern nurses, Aimée, coming up the path a few minutes later.
"There's a situation," she blurted out, gasping for breath. "There's been a fight at the market. They've brought in a bunch of victims. One woman's dead. A man has a huge knife wound to his neck. This other woman is all beat up around the head and unconscious. There's a baby that's been wounded..."
"Ok, ok, I'll be right there."
I pull on some scrubs as quickly as a cripple can and somehow cram my swollen foot into my crocs and hobble over. Crutches over moist, sandy soil is not easy.
I pull aside the curtain to the ER and see groups of people huddled around bloody clothes with arms and legs sticking out everywhere. Some are on beds, some on the ground. Sarah looks up.
"I think this one is the most critical. She's pregnant too. We can't get the baby's heart beat. She has a huge wound on her head."
In the midst of a bloody pile I see a slender, young Arab girl with a bulging middle sticking out of a brightly colored dress made even more bright by her life's fluid spilled all over it. Her face is irrecognizably swollen, contorted and bloodied. One eye is completely swollen shut and her long, tight braids are matted with the dark, drying human liquid.
Jason tells me one pupil doesn't react well. I don't bother to confirm.
Samedi and Abel have arrived. Simeon is there shortly. Ansley, Kristin, Emily and Jacob are also there.
I start shouting out orders.
"Get IV's started on everyone.
"I want one liter of Ringers running full speed.
"Give them all 2 grams of Ampicilline.
"Where's Stephan? Stephan, get a carton of those 1 L Ringers that just came yesterday.
"Is there a pharmacist? Where's Pierre?"
Andre has arrived and speaks up.
"I'll call him and get him right in," he says already punching in numbers on his cell phone.
"That guy there is probably the second sickest," Sarah shouts across the room as she attaches IV tubing to the arm of the first woman.
A young man is staring at me calmly. His once white pants are now tie dyed in his own color of red wine. A bundle of gauze has been taped under his right jaw on his neck.
I pull it off and see a 10cm laceration cut neatly from right under his chin to under his ear. It's about 5 cm deep and oozing a lot of blood until I push the compresses back in the gaping wound. It doesn't appear he got his jugular or carotid though. And he's breathing fine.
"Nathaneal, come and push on this as hard as you can...right there in the center of the wound. Don't let go."
IVs are running and nurses are frantically mixing up and administering Ampicillin.
"Jacob, you and Jason...et Abel aussi...go get the gurney from surgery...ABEL...LE BRANCARD...AU BLOC!" I yell at Abel since he's almost deaf, but one of our hardest workers and head nurse in surgery.
"Jacob, never mind, Jason and Abel can get the gurney, here take my keys and bring me the ultrasound from my office."
I briefly look at the other two women who are beat up and bruised but otherwise look ok. One is pregnant and I quickly do an ultrasound confirming the fetus is doing well.
Justine walks in with the baby who's mom had been killed, strapped to her back.
"She's not injured at all luckily, we just thought so at first because she was covered with blood."
"C'est bon!" I quip and head off to the OR.
In the OR, the lights aren't on so I hobble into the battery room/solar panel master control room and flip on the switch giving us solar power to light up the OR.
People scrambling around. IVs going up and flowing in. Needles, seringes, gauze, scalpels, instruments, suture, gloves, scissors, razors, shaved braids, and blood, blood everywhere.
After Abel finishes taking off a life's worth of braided African hair in a few minutes time, Samedi gets going suturing up the huge upside down V shaped gash in her scalp. She starts to moan, she had been unconscious we thought.
"Simeon, get her some Ketamine and Diazepam and put her under."
Meanwhile, there's a baby with anemia that no one has been able to find an IV on all day. They'd brought him to me at the house and I had tried putting a needle into the bone marrow of his tibia, but I didn't have the right needle and the others just kept bending. It was about this time that I was called for the mass casualty. Now, the baby i before me again.
"Jacob, give the baby a milliliter of Ketamine IM and strap him into the Papoose."
As Samedi starts suturing up the head wound, I slice into the baby's ankle and dissect down to the saphenous vein. I find it and slide in an IV catheter. We hook up the blood, see it's running in and I suture the wound closed around the IV.
They've now brought in the young man with the neck wound.
"Kristin, you and Ansley take this baby off to peds. Simeon, you and Jackson (Jason) move the man onto this gurney."
"If it wasn't for Allah, I'd be dead." The young man stares at me earnestly, speaking in Chadian Arabic.
"Alhamdullilah!" I reply and he nods and closes his eyes as he starts softly repeating Koranic verses.
I stay seated on my stool as Simeon puts him under anesthesia with the usual meds.
A couple sutures to bring the muscles together after washing it out well and a few loose skin stitches and I'm done.
"ABEL...PANSEMENT!" I point to the gauze bucket and to the man's neck. Abel and I have our own sign language between us. He nods and dives right in.
Meanwhile Emily has brought the ultrasound in to the OR and I do a quick ultrasound on the woman that Samedi has just finished stitching up her scalp. Her fetus is also doing well and at 32 weeks should survive even if the mom dies if we can do a C-section quick enough.
I grab my crutches and swing outside. Sarah is coming from the OR.
"They've just brought in another guy...a Nangjere man. The sous-prefet's truck is out looking for other victims. This one doesn't look too bad."
He's got some cuts on his hand and a stab wound to the shoulder blade that isn't deep. I leave it for Samedi and hobble home with the volunteers.
After a game of Settlers of Catan our second game is quickly interrupted with the arrival of more victims.
This time there're people scattered all over. Camouflaged gendarmes armed with AK47s and Kalishnikovs are unloading people from the truck. I just head straight to the OR and tell them to bring the worst one's in.
Samedi is just finishing up with the man I'd left him.
"James, I just heard the story of how it all started. It started with this guy..."
Apparently, the man was out in his field and saw some cows eating his rice. He challenged the herdsman, an Arab nomad. The nomad started to pull out his bow and arrow so the Nangjere man rushed him and grappled with him. The Arab pulled out his knife and the Nangjere grabbed the blade with his hand (hence the cuts). He quickly let go and the Arab stabbed him in the back. The man fainted and the Arab fled. The women watching assumed the Nangjere man was dead and ran to the market screaming bloody murder. When their relatives heard that their "brother" was dead, they attacked a group of Arab women just leaving the market. Hence our first wave of casualties. Now both sides were on the prowl and apparently a group of Nangjere had headed to the Arab village going from door to door dragging women and children out
and the Arab men were organizing their reprisals. There weren't enough gendarmes to control it so they were just picking up bodies and wounded.
Samedi finished and wheeled the man outside. At some point later on, he wisely dissappeared.
Now, they bring in a wiry Arab with the face of Kobe Bryant who has a huge slash across his right lower chest. It's about 25 cm long and all the way down to the ribs God gave him to protect his liver and lung. The other Arab is a wizened middle aged man with cuts all over. His main complaint is they've taken out his left eye but closer examination reveals a 10cm slash across his cheek and a left eye swollen shut. Small laceration cover his body and arms. An open dislocation of a finger I quickly "pop" back in. He also has a stab wound to his leg which has broken his tibia.
I put the tibia back in place, wash out the wound well, slosh some Betadine of a gauze and place it over the wound.
"Jacob, hold that tight. Jackson, keep pulling on his leg and hold it in this position. ABEL...PLATRE...PPPPLLLLLAAAATTTRRREEE!" He doesn't understand so I point him to the wound which he holds pressure to.
"Jacob, go get all the stuff for a cast. Just like we did last Saturday night: webroll, tubing, plaster, a basin of water, scissors"
"Simeon, Diazepam and Ketamine for this guy too." I point to the man with the chest wound.
"Ashadu Allah illaha ilalallah, wa ashadu ana Muhammador rasullallah." He starts to repeat over and over his Muslim creed until he drifts off. But he doesn't go quietly. He starts to have a reaction to the Ketamine and tenses all up not wanting to breath.
"Sarah, get me some Chlorpromazine." She can't find it.
"Someone get me some from the Pharmacy."
"There is none." replies Samedi. "I needed some last night and we're all out."
Just then Sarah comes out of the inside OR, "I found one ampoule."
The man finally calms down and I do a running subcutaneous suture to bring the muscles and fascia back together and then some loose interrupteds to bring the skin partly together, still allowing it to drain since it's contaminated.
"ABEL...PANSEMENT!" and I turn back to put the cast on the other Arab's leg while Samedi finishes suturing up all the lacerations.
Meanwhile, Kristin and Ansely and Augustin (who's just joined us) are working on another man just brought into the room on a stretcher.
"His intestine is sticking out his side and he's got a ton of cuts."
"Start an IV with Ringers. Simeon, Ampicilline 2g, Gentamycin 4 ampoules, Flagyl 2 bottles! Augustin, urinary catheter. Abel, nasogastric tube!"
I turn back to the fracture and Jacob has already wrapped it well. I wet the plaster and quickly wind it around the leg while Jason holds it in position.
"Hold it there until it's dry."
I turn to the guy on the floor. They've got all the antibiotics and tubes in and an IV is running well.
"Simeon, start the generator. Let's move him into the operating room."
A few minutes later I hop in on one foot having just scrubbed my hands and arms. I dry off and Abel puts on my gowns and gloves. The room is lit just by the two overhead OR lights focused on the betadined abdomen. Jacob slips me my stool and I position myself on the right side of the patient. We drape him and then Augustin prays.
I open him up from his sternum to his belly button and dark blood surges out. I suck it up and start exploring. There's no major gusher anywhere. In fact, I don't see any injury. The liver is fine. There is no stool in the abdomen. The stomach and intestines are undamaged. I pull out the omentum which is what had come out his side and cut off the contaminated part, tying off the vessels. As I can now examine the spleen as well I'm surprised to see no damage to that either. Where's the blood coming from?
Finally, I get Abel to give me a good look at the wound and I see air and blood spurting into the abdomen with each breath. Of course, it's coming from his lung through the punctured diaphragm.
That would also explain his poor oxygen saturation. Duh!
I suture up the diaphragmatic tear. Suck out as much blood as possible. Re-examine the spleen since I can't believe the knife left a 3cm laceration in the diaphragm right over the spleen without touching it, but the spleen is clean. I leave in a drain and close up.
Then I poke in a chest tube, hear the welcome rush of released air and a smattering of blood, hook him up to the water-seal/suction apparatus, suture up the large gash on his arm, the three small gashes on his back, and finally come to the left buttock.
Jacob and Abel hold him as we roll him on his right side. The wound is 15cm long and 10cm deep and bloody. I use a huge needle to bring the deep muscles together and then sew the fascia shut. I leave the skin loosely approximated and Abel and Simeon dress all the wounds.
It's a half hour after midnight when I get home. The truck drives up again an hour later but since no one comes to get me I fall back asleep. At six o-clock, my haggard, yet still beautiful wife shakes me awake.
"Well, they brought in a bunch more Arab women but they all only have minor injuries so I didn't wake you. They also brought in three more bodies. "Do you want to continue antibiotics or anything else on that guy you operated on?"
Oh yeah, post-op orders would be nice. Sarah smilingly holds out an OR order sheet that I quickly fill out.
She comes back at 8am showing me her lab slip.
"Yeah, not only was that the craziest night shift I've ever done, but I had malaria the whole time!"
An hour later, I limp over to the hospital on my crutches to see the patients. Everyone is doing well. All the women are awake, and while in pain and swollen all over are able to sit up and take some water. The neck and chest wound men are also awake and praising Allah. The man with the punctured lung is also stable but not too awake yet.
Just then, a huge group of robed and turbaned Arabs flows in accompanied by a bunch of soldiers with machine guns. They go through and out the back gate to the morgue. I continue to the ER to see the other patients who'd arrived after I'd gone back to bed.
I've just started and Djibrine, the nurse in charge of supervising our district's health centers comes in.
"The governor and the sous-prefet want to see all the wounded."
I find them in the wards packed in with Arabs and gendarmes. I send most of them out with the full support of the sous-prefet except for a couple of guards for the governor and the rest of his team. I show them around as they take town everyone's name and injuries and put them either on the Nangjere or Arab list.
I finally make it home at noon and my ankle has ballooned.
I think I might always be a cripple.
As far as I can tell, it started with digging that latrine last Sunday morning. I must have accidently hit the inside of my right ankle with the pickax. Whatever the cause, by Sunday night it was swollen and painful. By Monday morning, I could barely walk and it was red and angry. I tried to go to work, hobbled around on lightning rounds before I couldn't take the pain.
At the same time, I was hit with the worst attack of Malaria since the first time I got it in 2004. By the time I hobbled home my muscles were twitching so badly and my teeth chattering so hard you'd of thought I was in the midst of a Danish blizzard instead of 110 degree sub-saharan Africa.
I slammed down 8 anti-malarial combo pills straight in from China and huddled under the blankets desperately trying to fight off the cold.
Did I mention my ankle was killing me?
After a day or two, the malaria was better, but as of last night, I hadn't walked in a week.
I'd been hoping there wouldn't be any surgical emergencies as you can imagine. Despite two symphysiotomies performed resting my bum leg on a stool on wheels in order to bring in two floppy, but eventually revivable newborns, things had been relatively calm.
Until last night...
After a leisurely Saturday lounging around with my foot elevated to control the edema listening to David Asherick talk about living in the End of Time, I found myself strangely drawn to the window around 5pm that evening. I picked up my crutches (hand made in Chad and borrowed from a bed-ridden patient) and limped over to the screen door facing the fence between us and the Emergency Room.
It was hard to see because of the two screens and the distance between me and the action, but I saw a group of people gathering hurredly. A couple of push carts moved back and forth. Two people were carrying a stretcher.
I was not surprised to see one of the Intern nurses, Aimée, coming up the path a few minutes later.
"There's a situation," she blurted out, gasping for breath. "There's been a fight at the market. They've brought in a bunch of victims. One woman's dead. A man has a huge knife wound to his neck. This other woman is all beat up around the head and unconscious. There's a baby that's been wounded..."
"Ok, ok, I'll be right there."
I pull on some scrubs as quickly as a cripple can and somehow cram my swollen foot into my crocs and hobble over. Crutches over moist, sandy soil is not easy.
I pull aside the curtain to the ER and see groups of people huddled around bloody clothes with arms and legs sticking out everywhere. Some are on beds, some on the ground. Sarah looks up.
"I think this one is the most critical. She's pregnant too. We can't get the baby's heart beat. She has a huge wound on her head."
In the midst of a bloody pile I see a slender, young Arab girl with a bulging middle sticking out of a brightly colored dress made even more bright by her life's fluid spilled all over it. Her face is irrecognizably swollen, contorted and bloodied. One eye is completely swollen shut and her long, tight braids are matted with the dark, drying human liquid.
Jason tells me one pupil doesn't react well. I don't bother to confirm.
Samedi and Abel have arrived. Simeon is there shortly. Ansley, Kristin, Emily and Jacob are also there.
I start shouting out orders.
"Get IV's started on everyone.
"I want one liter of Ringers running full speed.
"Give them all 2 grams of Ampicilline.
"Where's Stephan? Stephan, get a carton of those 1 L Ringers that just came yesterday.
"Is there a pharmacist? Where's Pierre?"
Andre has arrived and speaks up.
"I'll call him and get him right in," he says already punching in numbers on his cell phone.
"That guy there is probably the second sickest," Sarah shouts across the room as she attaches IV tubing to the arm of the first woman.
A young man is staring at me calmly. His once white pants are now tie dyed in his own color of red wine. A bundle of gauze has been taped under his right jaw on his neck.
I pull it off and see a 10cm laceration cut neatly from right under his chin to under his ear. It's about 5 cm deep and oozing a lot of blood until I push the compresses back in the gaping wound. It doesn't appear he got his jugular or carotid though. And he's breathing fine.
"Nathaneal, come and push on this as hard as you can...right there in the center of the wound. Don't let go."
IVs are running and nurses are frantically mixing up and administering Ampicillin.
"Jacob, you and Jason...et Abel aussi...go get the gurney from surgery...ABEL...LE BRANCARD...AU BLOC!" I yell at Abel since he's almost deaf, but one of our hardest workers and head nurse in surgery.
"Jacob, never mind, Jason and Abel can get the gurney, here take my keys and bring me the ultrasound from my office."
I briefly look at the other two women who are beat up and bruised but otherwise look ok. One is pregnant and I quickly do an ultrasound confirming the fetus is doing well.
Justine walks in with the baby who's mom had been killed, strapped to her back.
"She's not injured at all luckily, we just thought so at first because she was covered with blood."
"C'est bon!" I quip and head off to the OR.
In the OR, the lights aren't on so I hobble into the battery room/solar panel master control room and flip on the switch giving us solar power to light up the OR.
People scrambling around. IVs going up and flowing in. Needles, seringes, gauze, scalpels, instruments, suture, gloves, scissors, razors, shaved braids, and blood, blood everywhere.
After Abel finishes taking off a life's worth of braided African hair in a few minutes time, Samedi gets going suturing up the huge upside down V shaped gash in her scalp. She starts to moan, she had been unconscious we thought.
"Simeon, get her some Ketamine and Diazepam and put her under."
Meanwhile, there's a baby with anemia that no one has been able to find an IV on all day. They'd brought him to me at the house and I had tried putting a needle into the bone marrow of his tibia, but I didn't have the right needle and the others just kept bending. It was about this time that I was called for the mass casualty. Now, the baby i before me again.
"Jacob, give the baby a milliliter of Ketamine IM and strap him into the Papoose."
As Samedi starts suturing up the head wound, I slice into the baby's ankle and dissect down to the saphenous vein. I find it and slide in an IV catheter. We hook up the blood, see it's running in and I suture the wound closed around the IV.
They've now brought in the young man with the neck wound.
"Kristin, you and Ansley take this baby off to peds. Simeon, you and Jackson (Jason) move the man onto this gurney."
"If it wasn't for Allah, I'd be dead." The young man stares at me earnestly, speaking in Chadian Arabic.
"Alhamdullilah!" I reply and he nods and closes his eyes as he starts softly repeating Koranic verses.
I stay seated on my stool as Simeon puts him under anesthesia with the usual meds.
A couple sutures to bring the muscles together after washing it out well and a few loose skin stitches and I'm done.
"ABEL...PANSEMENT!" I point to the gauze bucket and to the man's neck. Abel and I have our own sign language between us. He nods and dives right in.
Meanwhile Emily has brought the ultrasound in to the OR and I do a quick ultrasound on the woman that Samedi has just finished stitching up her scalp. Her fetus is also doing well and at 32 weeks should survive even if the mom dies if we can do a C-section quick enough.
I grab my crutches and swing outside. Sarah is coming from the OR.
"They've just brought in another guy...a Nangjere man. The sous-prefet's truck is out looking for other victims. This one doesn't look too bad."
He's got some cuts on his hand and a stab wound to the shoulder blade that isn't deep. I leave it for Samedi and hobble home with the volunteers.
After a game of Settlers of Catan our second game is quickly interrupted with the arrival of more victims.
This time there're people scattered all over. Camouflaged gendarmes armed with AK47s and Kalishnikovs are unloading people from the truck. I just head straight to the OR and tell them to bring the worst one's in.
Samedi is just finishing up with the man I'd left him.
"James, I just heard the story of how it all started. It started with this guy..."
Apparently, the man was out in his field and saw some cows eating his rice. He challenged the herdsman, an Arab nomad. The nomad started to pull out his bow and arrow so the Nangjere man rushed him and grappled with him. The Arab pulled out his knife and the Nangjere grabbed the blade with his hand (hence the cuts). He quickly let go and the Arab stabbed him in the back. The man fainted and the Arab fled. The women watching assumed the Nangjere man was dead and ran to the market screaming bloody murder. When their relatives heard that their "brother" was dead, they attacked a group of Arab women just leaving the market. Hence our first wave of casualties. Now both sides were on the prowl and apparently a group of Nangjere had headed to the Arab village going from door to door dragging women and children out
and the Arab men were organizing their reprisals. There weren't enough gendarmes to control it so they were just picking up bodies and wounded.
Samedi finished and wheeled the man outside. At some point later on, he wisely dissappeared.
Now, they bring in a wiry Arab with the face of Kobe Bryant who has a huge slash across his right lower chest. It's about 25 cm long and all the way down to the ribs God gave him to protect his liver and lung. The other Arab is a wizened middle aged man with cuts all over. His main complaint is they've taken out his left eye but closer examination reveals a 10cm slash across his cheek and a left eye swollen shut. Small laceration cover his body and arms. An open dislocation of a finger I quickly "pop" back in. He also has a stab wound to his leg which has broken his tibia.
I put the tibia back in place, wash out the wound well, slosh some Betadine of a gauze and place it over the wound.
"Jacob, hold that tight. Jackson, keep pulling on his leg and hold it in this position. ABEL...PLATRE...PPPPLLLLLAAAATTTRRREEE!" He doesn't understand so I point him to the wound which he holds pressure to.
"Jacob, go get all the stuff for a cast. Just like we did last Saturday night: webroll, tubing, plaster, a basin of water, scissors"
"Simeon, Diazepam and Ketamine for this guy too." I point to the man with the chest wound.
"Ashadu Allah illaha ilalallah, wa ashadu ana Muhammador rasullallah." He starts to repeat over and over his Muslim creed until he drifts off. But he doesn't go quietly. He starts to have a reaction to the Ketamine and tenses all up not wanting to breath.
"Sarah, get me some Chlorpromazine." She can't find it.
"Someone get me some from the Pharmacy."
"There is none." replies Samedi. "I needed some last night and we're all out."
Just then Sarah comes out of the inside OR, "I found one ampoule."
The man finally calms down and I do a running subcutaneous suture to bring the muscles and fascia back together and then some loose interrupteds to bring the skin partly together, still allowing it to drain since it's contaminated.
"ABEL...PANSEMENT!" and I turn back to put the cast on the other Arab's leg while Samedi finishes suturing up all the lacerations.
Meanwhile, Kristin and Ansely and Augustin (who's just joined us) are working on another man just brought into the room on a stretcher.
"His intestine is sticking out his side and he's got a ton of cuts."
"Start an IV with Ringers. Simeon, Ampicilline 2g, Gentamycin 4 ampoules, Flagyl 2 bottles! Augustin, urinary catheter. Abel, nasogastric tube!"
I turn back to the fracture and Jacob has already wrapped it well. I wet the plaster and quickly wind it around the leg while Jason holds it in position.
"Hold it there until it's dry."
I turn to the guy on the floor. They've got all the antibiotics and tubes in and an IV is running well.
"Simeon, start the generator. Let's move him into the operating room."
A few minutes later I hop in on one foot having just scrubbed my hands and arms. I dry off and Abel puts on my gowns and gloves. The room is lit just by the two overhead OR lights focused on the betadined abdomen. Jacob slips me my stool and I position myself on the right side of the patient. We drape him and then Augustin prays.
I open him up from his sternum to his belly button and dark blood surges out. I suck it up and start exploring. There's no major gusher anywhere. In fact, I don't see any injury. The liver is fine. There is no stool in the abdomen. The stomach and intestines are undamaged. I pull out the omentum which is what had come out his side and cut off the contaminated part, tying off the vessels. As I can now examine the spleen as well I'm surprised to see no damage to that either. Where's the blood coming from?
Finally, I get Abel to give me a good look at the wound and I see air and blood spurting into the abdomen with each breath. Of course, it's coming from his lung through the punctured diaphragm.
That would also explain his poor oxygen saturation. Duh!
I suture up the diaphragmatic tear. Suck out as much blood as possible. Re-examine the spleen since I can't believe the knife left a 3cm laceration in the diaphragm right over the spleen without touching it, but the spleen is clean. I leave in a drain and close up.
Then I poke in a chest tube, hear the welcome rush of released air and a smattering of blood, hook him up to the water-seal/suction apparatus, suture up the large gash on his arm, the three small gashes on his back, and finally come to the left buttock.
Jacob and Abel hold him as we roll him on his right side. The wound is 15cm long and 10cm deep and bloody. I use a huge needle to bring the deep muscles together and then sew the fascia shut. I leave the skin loosely approximated and Abel and Simeon dress all the wounds.
It's a half hour after midnight when I get home. The truck drives up again an hour later but since no one comes to get me I fall back asleep. At six o-clock, my haggard, yet still beautiful wife shakes me awake.
"Well, they brought in a bunch more Arab women but they all only have minor injuries so I didn't wake you. They also brought in three more bodies. "Do you want to continue antibiotics or anything else on that guy you operated on?"
Oh yeah, post-op orders would be nice. Sarah smilingly holds out an OR order sheet that I quickly fill out.
She comes back at 8am showing me her lab slip.
"Yeah, not only was that the craziest night shift I've ever done, but I had malaria the whole time!"
An hour later, I limp over to the hospital on my crutches to see the patients. Everyone is doing well. All the women are awake, and while in pain and swollen all over are able to sit up and take some water. The neck and chest wound men are also awake and praising Allah. The man with the punctured lung is also stable but not too awake yet.
Just then, a huge group of robed and turbaned Arabs flows in accompanied by a bunch of soldiers with machine guns. They go through and out the back gate to the morgue. I continue to the ER to see the other patients who'd arrived after I'd gone back to bed.
I've just started and Djibrine, the nurse in charge of supervising our district's health centers comes in.
"The governor and the sous-prefet want to see all the wounded."
I find them in the wards packed in with Arabs and gendarmes. I send most of them out with the full support of the sous-prefet except for a couple of guards for the governor and the rest of his team. I show them around as they take town everyone's name and injuries and put them either on the Nangjere or Arab list.
I finally make it home at noon and my ankle has ballooned.
I think I might always be a cripple.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Le week-end
Boy, am I glad I went to bed early Friday night!
It was still dark and sticky when I woke up around 4am thanks to the pitter patter of little rat feet running back and forth directly over my head as I lay in a profound sleep. Now, I can't go back to sleep. Every time I'm about to find dreamland again I hear the scurrying or the flapping of a bat outside my screen window. I give up and get up.
I put on a headlamp so I don't wake Sarah with the overhead light and go out to the kitchen table. I grab my French Bible and finish preparing the sermon I'll give in church later on this morning. At 5am I'm finally able to catch a few more winks before the pink early morning light filters in the windows accompanied by the ever vigilant roosters.
I eat a simple breakfast of local peanut butter on toast with guava sauce. meanwhile, Sarah has gone out to feed the horses and locked me in! I stare out the bedroom window waiting for someone to come within calling range. Kitty hops up to the window sill to join me in my quiet contemplation of the African dawn. Some purple, pipe-cleaner type flowers have shot up just outside the screen and a zebra looking bee is buzzing merrily amongst the bristles. Everything is green and the guavas are getting bigger and bigger although they're still very green.
Finally, I spot Emily, a volunteer just arrived yesterday who responds to my please for freedom and unbolts the outside latch on the front door. I pack up my books in a tiny bag and hoist my heavy, hollowed out tree trunk drum to my shoulder and head off to the church.
The ancient French hymns sung off key that come wafting out of the church are soon replaced by a more African rendering as Allah, our new nurse Augustin's 10 year old son, starts pounding out some rhythms on the drum accompanied by my little tambourine.
I have a very interesting discussion with a bunch of young people interested in finding out what Christianity is about. We talk about the Bible and how it came about and who wrote it and why it's important because it's a collection of stories telling us how God interacts with people despite all their warts and wrinkles.
Then I preach my sermon in French with Nangjere translation. Afterwards, Simeon is waiting for me outside.
"There are a couple of patients you should come see."
I hurry home, change into scrubs and mosey off to the hospital.
Our friend, Polycarpe, the child with the bleeding disorder we've been transfusing almost every week for the last few months is having severe abdominal pain. He also had some bloody diarrhea. I'd been saving the plasma part of other people's blood transfusions by storing them in the kerosene freezer. Yesterday, they were supposed to thaw it out, let any remaining red blood cells filter out and give Polycarpe the plasma. It hadn't been done. I quickly hook him up to the plasma and give him some
malaria treatment. I hope to avoid another transfusion.
A three year old child with a hemoglobin of 4.3 g/dl still hasn't got a blood transfusion. Seven family members have been tested with no one who can give her the blood she needs. Her blood type is B-, the same as me. I just gave blood last week, but what the heck. I tell Simeon to call the lab guy, find an IV and I'll be back.
I figure I'd better eat something first. I go home and Sarah has heated up yesterday's eggplant spaghetti sauce. We eat and then I drink another liter of water and head back to the hospital.
Mathieu is waiting for me. I lie down on the examining table in my office as Mathieu prepares the blood bag, wraps a tourniquet around my arm, uses alcohol soaked cotton to wipe off the skin over the big vein in the middle of my arm and slides in a huge needle effortlessly into the vein. I pump my fist to make the blood go out faster and I've quickly filled up the 450ml bag. Mathieu takes out the needle and puts a cotton ball over the puncture wound. I flod my arm up, sit up and get ready to go.
"Already?" Mathieu asks, astonished. "Aren't you dizzy?"
"No, I just ate and drank a bunch so I'm fine."
I head out the door and meet Sarah at the house where she's already saddled my horse, Bob. Sarah takes off on her horse, Pepper, while the volunteers follow on foot. I change into jeans, grab some water bottles and jump on Bob. Allah, my drumming friend from this morning is coming with me. I swing him up by his arm into the saddle behind me and we take off at a trot. Allah bounces around and we have to stop and walk often but eventually we catch up with the others.
The rice fields are completely swamped and the path is nothing but a swath of still water meandering amongst the rice stalks already starting to bend at the neck from the weight of their kernels.
It's blazing hot and the water splashing up from Bob's hooves is a welcome, mild relief from the sweltering heat.
The river has way overflown it's banks swallowing up all the familiar landmarks except a few trees bravely sticking their branches up from the swirling eddies. We wade out towards the current through what used to be a large field leading down to the cattle crossing. Jason, Jacob and Nathaneal have already almost reached the current as I start out and they are quickly swept downstream. I find the current and swiftly catch up to them where they rest holding onto some branches sticking out of the water as the water rushing by makes it sound like we're in a mountain stream rather than a flat river winding through the African bush.
I'm vaguely scared of hippos, though they probably won't like the fast current, and am again glad there are no longer crocs in these rivers.
After several bends we pull ourselves up the bank by grabbing onto piles of tall grasses and follow the sketchy, grown paths through the bush on the bank of the river trying to be as loud as possible to scare off vipers. Back where Sarah and the others are playing with some of the Chadian kids, the guys and I head up river just a tad where we see a tree coming out of the river near the bank and then bending out conveniently at a right angle where we can jump off.
After some jumps to test the depth, we dive and do back flips venturing ever higher on ever thinner branches until we've exhausted the possibilities.
Heading home on Bob with Allah I have a hard time holding the horse back as he smells his dried corn at home already! Packs of mosquitoes buzz along with us in the twilight as the sun has gone down over half an hour ago. Finally, Allah can't take any more so once we hit the first huts of the village he gets off and I let Bob go rushing off through the approaching night with the wind whipping around me leaving the mosquitoes far behind.
I arrive in time to see Augustin returning from church. He informs me that Samedi is looking for me as there was a motorcycle accident.
I quickly pull off the muddy saddle and harness from Bob, open the door, strip off my soaked jeans, take a fast shower and pull on scrubs to head over to the hospital.
The ER is dimly lit by it's one fluorescent bulb crowded with buzzing insects. A small pool of blood has formed at the foot of the bed where the middle aged, portly woman lies with her left ankle at an impossible angle like it's been shifted completely towards the middle. A blood soaked gauze pad is tied on tightly over the lateral ankle where I assume the bone came poking out. She has no other injuries.
They've also just brought in another elderly woman in a push cart who I can tell needs an amputation just by the smell and the sight of the left foot wrapped in dirty rags over a mud soaked gauze wrap. Sure enough, cutting off the rags and gauze reveals wet, blackened toes with the calloused skin on the sole peeling off and a large, pus filled central wound on top revealing the tendons and bones.
The guy driving the motorcycle that had fallen over causing the woman's broken ankle has a swollen hand with probably some fractures. As I wait for the two women to pay for their surgeries, I quickly apply a combo plaster and fiberglass cast to the man's hand and wrist, give him some Ibuprofen and tell him to go to Moundou and get some x-rays.
The family of the woman with the broken ankle are having internal conflicts as to who will pay so since the son of the woman with the rotten foot has paid half and put his bicycle on as collateral, we start with her.
Hoping to do a mid foot amputation only I squeeze the blood out of her leg, apply a blood pressure cuff as tourniquet and slice through the bottom of her foot right into a pocket of pus. Her foot is gone. I quickly move up to the middle of the lower leg and slice down to bone. I scrape the tissue off the bone as far up as I can then painfully and slowly saw through the tibia and fibula with a tiny inch long saw that keeps clogging up with wet bone paste. Finally, I get the leg sawed off, identify the major vascular bundles, clamp and tie them and close the muscles and skin over the stump.
The second woman has finally found a solution so we find an IV, give her some Ketamine and Diazepam and I pull her foot down and out into position. The fibula gets stuck on some tissue inside but with some manipulation I free it up and get it into anatomical position. The medial malleolus (the part of the tibia that makes up the ankle joint) is crushed in several pieces. The fibula part of the ankle seems to have only one break, but it's an open fracture. Abel mixes up some diluted bleach solution and I wash it out well. I close the subcutaneous tissues, apply a dressing with Betadine and while I try to hold the foot and ankle in as good a position as possible, Jacob wraps the foot and leg up to the knee with web roll and then applies a plaster cast. I am able to mold the ankle some more and get the foot in a good position. The cast hardens and we take her out to her bed.
It's 11pm.
I go home. I haven't eaten since lunch, since giving blood, since riding to the river, since swimming and jumping off trees, since riding back and since doing two operations.
I'm slightly hungry and am so grateful to find a skillet filled with fried rice and eggs. I devour it. It's only later that Sarah informs me that was supposed to be enough for supper and breakfast the next day.
I fall fast asleep until the rat wakes me up again at 5:30am this time. Sarah and I get up, grab the shovels and pick and go out behind the church to dig a latrine...a typical weekend is half over in Bere, Tchad... Boy, am I glad I went to bed early Friday night!
It was still dark and sticky when I woke up around 4am thanks to the pitter patter of little rat feet running back and forth directly over my head as I lay in a profound sleep. Now, I can't go back to sleep. Every time I'm about to find dreamland again I hear the scurrying or the flapping of a bat outside my screen window. I give up and get up.
I put on a headlamp so I don't wake Sarah with the overhead light and go out to the kitchen table. I grab my French Bible and finish preparing the sermon I'll give in church later on this morning. At 5am I'm finally able to catch a few more winks before the pink early morning light filters in the windows accompanied by the ever vigilant roosters.
I eat a simple breakfast of local peanut butter on toast with guava sauce. Meanwhile, Sarah has gone out to feed the horses and locked me in! I stare out the bedroom window waiting for someone to come within calling range. Kitty hops up to the window sill to join me in my quiet contemplation of the African dawn. Some purple, pipe-cleaner type flowers have shot up just outside the screen and a zebra looking bee is buzzing merrily amongst the bristles. Everything is green and the guavas are getting bigger and bigger although they're still very green.
Finally, I spot Emily, a volunteer just arrived yesterday who responds to my please for freedom and unbolts the outside latch on the front door. I pack up my books in a tiny bag and hoist my heavy, hollowed out tree trunk drum to my shoulder and head off to the church.
The ancient French hymns sung off key that come wafting out of the church are soon replaced by a more African rendering as Allah, our new nurse Augustin's 10 year old son, starts pounding out some rhythms on the drum accompanied by my little tambourine.
I have a very interesting discussion with a bunch of young people interested in finding out what Christianity is about. We talk about the Bible and how it came about and who wrote it and why it's important because it's a collection of stories telling us how God interacts with people despite all their warts and wrinkles.
Then I preach my sermon in French with Nangjere translation. Afterwards, Simeon is waiting for me outside.
"There are a couple of patients you should come see."
I hurry home, change into scrubs and mosey off to the hospital.
Our friend, Polycarpe, the child with the bleeding disorder we've been transfusing almost every week for the last few months is having severe abdominal pain. He also had some bloody diarrhea. I'd been saving the plasma part of other people's blood transfusions by storing them in the kerosene freezer. Yesterday, they were supposed to thaw it out, let any remaining red blood cells filter out and give Polycarpe the plasma. It hadn't been done. I quickly hook him up to the plasma and give him some
malaria treatment. I hope to avoid another transfusion.
A three year old child with a hemoglobin of 4.3 g/dl still hasn't got a blood transfusion. Seven family members have been tested with no one who can give her the blood she needs. Her blood type is B-, the same as me. I just gave blood last week, but what the heck. I tell Simeon to call the lab guy, find an IV and I'll be back.
I figure I'd better eat something first. I go home and Sarah has heated up yesterday's eggplant spaghetti sauce. We eat and then I drink another liter of water and head back to the hospital.
Mathieu is waiting for me. I lie down on the examining table in my office as Mathieu prepares the blood bag, wraps a tourniquet around my arm, uses alcohol soaked cotton to wipe off the skin over the big vein in the middle of my arm and slides in a huge needle effortlessly into the vein. I pump my fist to make the blood go out faster and I've quickly filled up the 450ml bag. Mathieu takes out the needle and puts a cotton ball over the puncture wound. I flod my arm up, sit up and get ready to go.
"Already?" Mathieu asks, astonished. "Aren't you dizzy?"
"No, I just ate and drank a bunch so I'm fine."
I head out the door and meet Sarah at the house where she's already saddled my horse, Bob. Sarah takes off on her horse, Pepper, while the volunteers follow on foot. I change into jeans, grab some water bottles and jump on Bob. Allah, my drumming friend from this morning is coming with me. I swing him up by his arm into the saddle behind me and we take off at a trot. Allah bounces around and we have to stop and walk often but eventually we catch up with the others.
The rice fields are completely swamped and the path is nothing but a swath of still water meandering amongst the rice stalks already starting to bend at the neck from the weight of their kernels.
It's blazing hot and the water splashing up from Bob's hooves is a welcome, mild relief from the sweltering heat.
The river has way overflown it's banks swallowing up all the familiar landmarks except a few trees bravely sticking their branches up from the swirling eddies. We wade out towards the current through what used to be a large field leading down to the cattle crossing. Jason, Jacob and Nathaneal have already almost reached the current as I start out and they are quickly swept downstream. I find the current and swiftly catch up to them where they rest holding onto some branches sticking out of the water as the water rushing by makes it sound like we're in a mountain stream rather than a flat river winding through the African bush.
I'm vaguely scared of hippos, though they probably won't like the fast current, and am again glad there are no longer crocs in these rivers.
After several bends we pull ourselves up the bank by grabbing onto piles of tall grasses and follow the sketchy, grown paths through the bush on the bank of the river trying to be as loud as possible to scare off vipers.
Back where Sarah and the others are playing with some of the Chadian kids, the guys and I head up river just a tad where we see a tree coming out of the river near the bank and then bending out conveniently at a right angle where we can jump off.
After some jumps to test the depth, we dive and do back flips venturing ever higher on ever thinner branches until we've exhausted the possibilities.
Heading home on Bob with Allah I have a hard time holding the horse back as he smells his dried corn at home already! Packs of mosquitos buzz along with us in the twilight as the sun has gone down over half an hour ago. Finally, Allah can't take any more so once we hit the first huts of the village he gets off and I let Bob go rushing off through the approaching night with the wind whipping around me leaving the mosquitos far behind.
I arrive in time to see Augustin returning from church. He informs me that Samedi is looking for me as there was a motorcycle accident.
I quickly pull off the muddy saddle and harness from Bob, open the door, strip off my soaked jeans, take a fast shower and pull on scrubs to head over to the hospital.
The ER is dimly lit by it's one flourescent bulb crowded with buzzing insects. A small pool of blood has formed at the foot of the bed where the middle aged, portly woman lies with her left ankle at an impossible angle like it's been shifted completely towards the middle. A blood soaked gauze pad is tied on tightly over the lateral ankle where I assume the bone came poking out. She has no other injuries.
They've also just brought in another elderly woman in a push cart who I can tell needs an amputation just by the smell and the sight of the left foot wrapped in dirty rags over a mud soaked gauze wrap. Sure enough, cutting off the rags and gauze reveals wet, blackened toes with the calloused skin on the sole peeling off and a large, pus filled central wound on top revealing the tendons and bones.
The guy driving the motorcycle that had fallen over causing the woman's broken ankle has a swollen hand with probably some fractures. As I wait for the two women to pay for their surgeries, I quickly apply a combo plaster and fiberglass cast to the man's hand and wrist, give him some Ibuprofen and tell him to go to Moundou and get some x-rays.
The family of the woman with the broken ankle are having internal conflicts as to who will pay so since the son of the woman with the rotten foot has paid half and put his bicycle on as collateral, we start with her.
Hoping to do a midfoot amputation only I squeeze the blood out of her leg, apply a blood pressure cuff as tourniquet and slice through the bottom of her foot right into a pocket of pus. Her foot is gone. I quickly move up to the middle of the lower leg and slice down to bone. I scrape the tissue off the bone as far up as I can then painfully and slowly saw through the tibia and fibula with a tiny inch long saw that keeps clogging up with wet bone paste. Finally, I get the leg sawed off, identify the major vascular bundles, clamp and tie them and close the muscles and skin over the stump.
The second woman has finally found a solution so we find an IV, give her some Ketamine and Diazepam and I pull her foot down and out into position. The fibula gets stuck on some tissue inside but with some manipulation I free it up and get it into anatomical position. The medial malleolus (the part of the tibia that makes up the ankle joint) is crushed in several pieces. The fibula part of the ankle seems to have only one break, but it's an open fracture. Abel mixes up some diluted bleach solution and I wash it out well. I close the subcutaneous tissues, apply a dressing with Betadine and while I try to hold the foot and ankle in as good a position as possible, Jacob wraps the foot and leg up to the knee with web roll and then applies a plaster cast. I am able to mold the ankle some more and get the foot in a good position. The cast hardens and we take her out to her bed.
It's 11pm.
I go home. I haven't eaten since lunch, since giving blood, since riding to the river, since swimming and jumping off trees, since riding back and since doing two operations.
I'm slightly hungry and am so grateful to find a skillet filled with fried rice and eggs. I devour it. It's only later that Sarah informs me that was supposed to be enough for supper and breakfast the next day.
I fall fast asleep until the rat wakes me up again at 5:30am this time. Sarah and I get up, grab the shovels and pick and go out behind the church to dig a latrine...a typical weekend is half over in Bere, Tchad...
Skillet filled with fried rice and eggs. I devour it. It's only later that Sarah informs me that was supposed to be enough for supper and breakfast the next day.
I fall fast asleep until the rat wakes me up again at 5:30am this time. Sarah and I get up, grab the shovels and pick and go out behind the church to dig a latrine...a typical weekend is half over in Bere, Tchad...
It was still dark and sticky when I woke up around 4am thanks to the pitter patter of little rat feet running back and forth directly over my head as I lay in a profound sleep. Now, I can't go back to sleep. Every time I'm about to find dreamland again I hear the scurrying or the flapping of a bat outside my screen window. I give up and get up.
I put on a headlamp so I don't wake Sarah with the overhead light and go out to the kitchen table. I grab my French Bible and finish preparing the sermon I'll give in church later on this morning. At 5am I'm finally able to catch a few more winks before the pink early morning light filters in the windows accompanied by the ever vigilant roosters.
I eat a simple breakfast of local peanut butter on toast with guava sauce. meanwhile, Sarah has gone out to feed the horses and locked me in! I stare out the bedroom window waiting for someone to come within calling range. Kitty hops up to the window sill to join me in my quiet contemplation of the African dawn. Some purple, pipe-cleaner type flowers have shot up just outside the screen and a zebra looking bee is buzzing merrily amongst the bristles. Everything is green and the guavas are getting bigger and bigger although they're still very green.
Finally, I spot Emily, a volunteer just arrived yesterday who responds to my please for freedom and unbolts the outside latch on the front door. I pack up my books in a tiny bag and hoist my heavy, hollowed out tree trunk drum to my shoulder and head off to the church.
The ancient French hymns sung off key that come wafting out of the church are soon replaced by a more African rendering as Allah, our new nurse Augustin's 10 year old son, starts pounding out some rhythms on the drum accompanied by my little tambourine.
I have a very interesting discussion with a bunch of young people interested in finding out what Christianity is about. We talk about the Bible and how it came about and who wrote it and why it's important because it's a collection of stories telling us how God interacts with people despite all their warts and wrinkles.
Then I preach my sermon in French with Nangjere translation. Afterwards, Simeon is waiting for me outside.
"There are a couple of patients you should come see."
I hurry home, change into scrubs and mosey off to the hospital.
Our friend, Polycarpe, the child with the bleeding disorder we've been transfusing almost every week for the last few months is having severe abdominal pain. He also had some bloody diarrhea. I'd been saving the plasma part of other people's blood transfusions by storing them in the kerosene freezer. Yesterday, they were supposed to thaw it out, let any remaining red blood cells filter out and give Polycarpe the plasma. It hadn't been done. I quickly hook him up to the plasma and give him some
malaria treatment. I hope to avoid another transfusion.
A three year old child with a hemoglobin of 4.3 g/dl still hasn't got a blood transfusion. Seven family members have been tested with no one who can give her the blood she needs. Her blood type is B-, the same as me. I just gave blood last week, but what the heck. I tell Simeon to call the lab guy, find an IV and I'll be back.
I figure I'd better eat something first. I go home and Sarah has heated up yesterday's eggplant spaghetti sauce. We eat and then I drink another liter of water and head back to the hospital.
Mathieu is waiting for me. I lie down on the examining table in my office as Mathieu prepares the blood bag, wraps a tourniquet around my arm, uses alcohol soaked cotton to wipe off the skin over the big vein in the middle of my arm and slides in a huge needle effortlessly into the vein. I pump my fist to make the blood go out faster and I've quickly filled up the 450ml bag. Mathieu takes out the needle and puts a cotton ball over the puncture wound. I flod my arm up, sit up and get ready to go.
"Already?" Mathieu asks, astonished. "Aren't you dizzy?"
"No, I just ate and drank a bunch so I'm fine."
I head out the door and meet Sarah at the house where she's already saddled my horse, Bob. Sarah takes off on her horse, Pepper, while the volunteers follow on foot. I change into jeans, grab some water bottles and jump on Bob. Allah, my drumming friend from this morning is coming with me. I swing him up by his arm into the saddle behind me and we take off at a trot. Allah bounces around and we have to stop and walk often but eventually we catch up with the others.
The rice fields are completely swamped and the path is nothing but a swath of still water meandering amongst the rice stalks already starting to bend at the neck from the weight of their kernels.
It's blazing hot and the water splashing up from Bob's hooves is a welcome, mild relief from the sweltering heat.
The river has way overflown it's banks swallowing up all the familiar landmarks except a few trees bravely sticking their branches up from the swirling eddies. We wade out towards the current through what used to be a large field leading down to the cattle crossing. Jason, Jacob and Nathaneal have already almost reached the current as I start out and they are quickly swept downstream. I find the current and swiftly catch up to them where they rest holding onto some branches sticking out of the water as the water rushing by makes it sound like we're in a mountain stream rather than a flat river winding through the African bush.
I'm vaguely scared of hippos, though they probably won't like the fast current, and am again glad there are no longer crocs in these rivers.
After several bends we pull ourselves up the bank by grabbing onto piles of tall grasses and follow the sketchy, grown paths through the bush on the bank of the river trying to be as loud as possible to scare off vipers. Back where Sarah and the others are playing with some of the Chadian kids, the guys and I head up river just a tad where we see a tree coming out of the river near the bank and then bending out conveniently at a right angle where we can jump off.
After some jumps to test the depth, we dive and do back flips venturing ever higher on ever thinner branches until we've exhausted the possibilities.
Heading home on Bob with Allah I have a hard time holding the horse back as he smells his dried corn at home already! Packs of mosquitoes buzz along with us in the twilight as the sun has gone down over half an hour ago. Finally, Allah can't take any more so once we hit the first huts of the village he gets off and I let Bob go rushing off through the approaching night with the wind whipping around me leaving the mosquitoes far behind.
I arrive in time to see Augustin returning from church. He informs me that Samedi is looking for me as there was a motorcycle accident.
I quickly pull off the muddy saddle and harness from Bob, open the door, strip off my soaked jeans, take a fast shower and pull on scrubs to head over to the hospital.
The ER is dimly lit by it's one fluorescent bulb crowded with buzzing insects. A small pool of blood has formed at the foot of the bed where the middle aged, portly woman lies with her left ankle at an impossible angle like it's been shifted completely towards the middle. A blood soaked gauze pad is tied on tightly over the lateral ankle where I assume the bone came poking out. She has no other injuries.
They've also just brought in another elderly woman in a push cart who I can tell needs an amputation just by the smell and the sight of the left foot wrapped in dirty rags over a mud soaked gauze wrap. Sure enough, cutting off the rags and gauze reveals wet, blackened toes with the calloused skin on the sole peeling off and a large, pus filled central wound on top revealing the tendons and bones.
The guy driving the motorcycle that had fallen over causing the woman's broken ankle has a swollen hand with probably some fractures. As I wait for the two women to pay for their surgeries, I quickly apply a combo plaster and fiberglass cast to the man's hand and wrist, give him some Ibuprofen and tell him to go to Moundou and get some x-rays.
The family of the woman with the broken ankle are having internal conflicts as to who will pay so since the son of the woman with the rotten foot has paid half and put his bicycle on as collateral, we start with her.
Hoping to do a mid foot amputation only I squeeze the blood out of her leg, apply a blood pressure cuff as tourniquet and slice through the bottom of her foot right into a pocket of pus. Her foot is gone. I quickly move up to the middle of the lower leg and slice down to bone. I scrape the tissue off the bone as far up as I can then painfully and slowly saw through the tibia and fibula with a tiny inch long saw that keeps clogging up with wet bone paste. Finally, I get the leg sawed off, identify the major vascular bundles, clamp and tie them and close the muscles and skin over the stump.
The second woman has finally found a solution so we find an IV, give her some Ketamine and Diazepam and I pull her foot down and out into position. The fibula gets stuck on some tissue inside but with some manipulation I free it up and get it into anatomical position. The medial malleolus (the part of the tibia that makes up the ankle joint) is crushed in several pieces. The fibula part of the ankle seems to have only one break, but it's an open fracture. Abel mixes up some diluted bleach solution and I wash it out well. I close the subcutaneous tissues, apply a dressing with Betadine and while I try to hold the foot and ankle in as good a position as possible, Jacob wraps the foot and leg up to the knee with web roll and then applies a plaster cast. I am able to mold the ankle some more and get the foot in a good position. The cast hardens and we take her out to her bed.
It's 11pm.
I go home. I haven't eaten since lunch, since giving blood, since riding to the river, since swimming and jumping off trees, since riding back and since doing two operations.
I'm slightly hungry and am so grateful to find a skillet filled with fried rice and eggs. I devour it. It's only later that Sarah informs me that was supposed to be enough for supper and breakfast the next day.
I fall fast asleep until the rat wakes me up again at 5:30am this time. Sarah and I get up, grab the shovels and pick and go out behind the church to dig a latrine...a typical weekend is half over in Bere, Tchad... Boy, am I glad I went to bed early Friday night!
It was still dark and sticky when I woke up around 4am thanks to the pitter patter of little rat feet running back and forth directly over my head as I lay in a profound sleep. Now, I can't go back to sleep. Every time I'm about to find dreamland again I hear the scurrying or the flapping of a bat outside my screen window. I give up and get up.
I put on a headlamp so I don't wake Sarah with the overhead light and go out to the kitchen table. I grab my French Bible and finish preparing the sermon I'll give in church later on this morning. At 5am I'm finally able to catch a few more winks before the pink early morning light filters in the windows accompanied by the ever vigilant roosters.
I eat a simple breakfast of local peanut butter on toast with guava sauce. Meanwhile, Sarah has gone out to feed the horses and locked me in! I stare out the bedroom window waiting for someone to come within calling range. Kitty hops up to the window sill to join me in my quiet contemplation of the African dawn. Some purple, pipe-cleaner type flowers have shot up just outside the screen and a zebra looking bee is buzzing merrily amongst the bristles. Everything is green and the guavas are getting bigger and bigger although they're still very green.
Finally, I spot Emily, a volunteer just arrived yesterday who responds to my please for freedom and unbolts the outside latch on the front door. I pack up my books in a tiny bag and hoist my heavy, hollowed out tree trunk drum to my shoulder and head off to the church.
The ancient French hymns sung off key that come wafting out of the church are soon replaced by a more African rendering as Allah, our new nurse Augustin's 10 year old son, starts pounding out some rhythms on the drum accompanied by my little tambourine.
I have a very interesting discussion with a bunch of young people interested in finding out what Christianity is about. We talk about the Bible and how it came about and who wrote it and why it's important because it's a collection of stories telling us how God interacts with people despite all their warts and wrinkles.
Then I preach my sermon in French with Nangjere translation. Afterwards, Simeon is waiting for me outside.
"There are a couple of patients you should come see."
I hurry home, change into scrubs and mosey off to the hospital.
Our friend, Polycarpe, the child with the bleeding disorder we've been transfusing almost every week for the last few months is having severe abdominal pain. He also had some bloody diarrhea. I'd been saving the plasma part of other people's blood transfusions by storing them in the kerosene freezer. Yesterday, they were supposed to thaw it out, let any remaining red blood cells filter out and give Polycarpe the plasma. It hadn't been done. I quickly hook him up to the plasma and give him some
malaria treatment. I hope to avoid another transfusion.
A three year old child with a hemoglobin of 4.3 g/dl still hasn't got a blood transfusion. Seven family members have been tested with no one who can give her the blood she needs. Her blood type is B-, the same as me. I just gave blood last week, but what the heck. I tell Simeon to call the lab guy, find an IV and I'll be back.
I figure I'd better eat something first. I go home and Sarah has heated up yesterday's eggplant spaghetti sauce. We eat and then I drink another liter of water and head back to the hospital.
Mathieu is waiting for me. I lie down on the examining table in my office as Mathieu prepares the blood bag, wraps a tourniquet around my arm, uses alcohol soaked cotton to wipe off the skin over the big vein in the middle of my arm and slides in a huge needle effortlessly into the vein. I pump my fist to make the blood go out faster and I've quickly filled up the 450ml bag. Mathieu takes out the needle and puts a cotton ball over the puncture wound. I flod my arm up, sit up and get ready to go.
"Already?" Mathieu asks, astonished. "Aren't you dizzy?"
"No, I just ate and drank a bunch so I'm fine."
I head out the door and meet Sarah at the house where she's already saddled my horse, Bob. Sarah takes off on her horse, Pepper, while the volunteers follow on foot. I change into jeans, grab some water bottles and jump on Bob. Allah, my drumming friend from this morning is coming with me. I swing him up by his arm into the saddle behind me and we take off at a trot. Allah bounces around and we have to stop and walk often but eventually we catch up with the others.
The rice fields are completely swamped and the path is nothing but a swath of still water meandering amongst the rice stalks already starting to bend at the neck from the weight of their kernels.
It's blazing hot and the water splashing up from Bob's hooves is a welcome, mild relief from the sweltering heat.
The river has way overflown it's banks swallowing up all the familiar landmarks except a few trees bravely sticking their branches up from the swirling eddies. We wade out towards the current through what used to be a large field leading down to the cattle crossing. Jason, Jacob and Nathaneal have already almost reached the current as I start out and they are quickly swept downstream. I find the current and swiftly catch up to them where they rest holding onto some branches sticking out of the water as the water rushing by makes it sound like we're in a mountain stream rather than a flat river winding through the African bush.
I'm vaguely scared of hippos, though they probably won't like the fast current, and am again glad there are no longer crocs in these rivers.
After several bends we pull ourselves up the bank by grabbing onto piles of tall grasses and follow the sketchy, grown paths through the bush on the bank of the river trying to be as loud as possible to scare off vipers.
Back where Sarah and the others are playing with some of the Chadian kids, the guys and I head up river just a tad where we see a tree coming out of the river near the bank and then bending out conveniently at a right angle where we can jump off.
After some jumps to test the depth, we dive and do back flips venturing ever higher on ever thinner branches until we've exhausted the possibilities.
Heading home on Bob with Allah I have a hard time holding the horse back as he smells his dried corn at home already! Packs of mosquitos buzz along with us in the twilight as the sun has gone down over half an hour ago. Finally, Allah can't take any more so once we hit the first huts of the village he gets off and I let Bob go rushing off through the approaching night with the wind whipping around me leaving the mosquitos far behind.
I arrive in time to see Augustin returning from church. He informs me that Samedi is looking for me as there was a motorcycle accident.
I quickly pull off the muddy saddle and harness from Bob, open the door, strip off my soaked jeans, take a fast shower and pull on scrubs to head over to the hospital.
The ER is dimly lit by it's one flourescent bulb crowded with buzzing insects. A small pool of blood has formed at the foot of the bed where the middle aged, portly woman lies with her left ankle at an impossible angle like it's been shifted completely towards the middle. A blood soaked gauze pad is tied on tightly over the lateral ankle where I assume the bone came poking out. She has no other injuries.
They've also just brought in another elderly woman in a push cart who I can tell needs an amputation just by the smell and the sight of the left foot wrapped in dirty rags over a mud soaked gauze wrap. Sure enough, cutting off the rags and gauze reveals wet, blackened toes with the calloused skin on the sole peeling off and a large, pus filled central wound on top revealing the tendons and bones.
The guy driving the motorcycle that had fallen over causing the woman's broken ankle has a swollen hand with probably some fractures. As I wait for the two women to pay for their surgeries, I quickly apply a combo plaster and fiberglass cast to the man's hand and wrist, give him some Ibuprofen and tell him to go to Moundou and get some x-rays.
The family of the woman with the broken ankle are having internal conflicts as to who will pay so since the son of the woman with the rotten foot has paid half and put his bicycle on as collateral, we start with her.
Hoping to do a midfoot amputation only I squeeze the blood out of her leg, apply a blood pressure cuff as tourniquet and slice through the bottom of her foot right into a pocket of pus. Her foot is gone. I quickly move up to the middle of the lower leg and slice down to bone. I scrape the tissue off the bone as far up as I can then painfully and slowly saw through the tibia and fibula with a tiny inch long saw that keeps clogging up with wet bone paste. Finally, I get the leg sawed off, identify the major vascular bundles, clamp and tie them and close the muscles and skin over the stump.
The second woman has finally found a solution so we find an IV, give her some Ketamine and Diazepam and I pull her foot down and out into position. The fibula gets stuck on some tissue inside but with some manipulation I free it up and get it into anatomical position. The medial malleolus (the part of the tibia that makes up the ankle joint) is crushed in several pieces. The fibula part of the ankle seems to have only one break, but it's an open fracture. Abel mixes up some diluted bleach solution and I wash it out well. I close the subcutaneous tissues, apply a dressing with Betadine and while I try to hold the foot and ankle in as good a position as possible, Jacob wraps the foot and leg up to the knee with web roll and then applies a plaster cast. I am able to mold the ankle some more and get the foot in a good position. The cast hardens and we take her out to her bed.
It's 11pm.
I go home. I haven't eaten since lunch, since giving blood, since riding to the river, since swimming and jumping off trees, since riding back and since doing two operations.
I'm slightly hungry and am so grateful to find a skillet filled with fried rice and eggs. I devour it. It's only later that Sarah informs me that was supposed to be enough for supper and breakfast the next day.
I fall fast asleep until the rat wakes me up again at 5:30am this time. Sarah and I get up, grab the shovels and pick and go out behind the church to dig a latrine...a typical weekend is half over in Bere, Tchad...
Skillet filled with fried rice and eggs. I devour it. It's only later that Sarah informs me that was supposed to be enough for supper and breakfast the next day.
I fall fast asleep until the rat wakes me up again at 5:30am this time. Sarah and I get up, grab the shovels and pick and go out behind the church to dig a latrine...a typical weekend is half over in Bere, Tchad...
Monday, September 29, 2008
Police
It's strange, because if I'd been in the US and the same thing happened, I'd be scared spitless. It happened like this...
I'm in N'Djamena to pick up Sarah from the airport. My friend and fellow AHI board member, Chief Justice Aimé, has lent me his Toyota 4-Runner. I take Sarah and her Danish sidekick, Nathaneal, to the central market. I park right in front of the Grand Mosque, just ahead of where the taxis pick up and let off passengers. I roll down the windows and sit back to watch the passersby.
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A few kids come up with their metal bowls asking for alms for the mosque. I chat a little with them in my broken Arabic. One sticks his hand in and is fascinated by seeing the locks go up and down with just the push of a button. Finally, I can't get rid of them, even with the usual "Allah eftah" (God will provide) which should be followed by an "Amin" but instead these kids just say "Ma fi" (no way). Finally, I grab a bowl and toss it to the side and put on a fierce expression. They get the hint.
A young, beak-nosed Arab greets me from behind on the left. I turn my head and greet him back. As I turn back I see Sarah coming up to the window. She's just finished changing money and is about to head out to buy vegetables.
"Who was that guy and what was he doing by the window?"
"Nothing, he was just saying 'Hi'."
"Oh, he just looked suspicious."
"Don't worry about it. See you in a bit."
She heads out again with the green army duffel bag accompanied by Nathaneal.
A brand-new dark green pick up approaches from the left. "Police" is written in bold letters across the door. There are machine gun toting gendarmes in the back and a camo-wearing man with a maroon beret sticks his head out the passenger window, spots me, turns back and says something in Arabic. I hear the word "Nasara" (foreigner or "whitey") and the truck pulls in just in front of me and parks.
"Oh, boy," I think. "Here we go again."
Sure enough, the beret man and a couple of Kalishnikov bearers hop out and approach the right side of the 4-Runner. I'm a bit surprised, however, by their next move.
A young, gap-toothed teenager with his old school Russian automatic weapon opens the passenger door and gets in beside me, his gun slung loosely by his left side.
"Let's go to the police station!" barks the beret-wearing man, obviously in charge. "You're illegally parked."
I guess if I had recently arrived in Tchad I might be soiling my britches at this point, but for some reason I'm not afraid, just exasperated. I try not to sound angry and frustrated as I reply that I didn't know I was illegally parked since there is no sign and I've seen others park there often before.
The chief doesn't budge. I try a new tactic.
"I can't go because my wife is in the market and how will she know where I've gone and how will I find her?" I can see he's not convinced. "Now that you've done your job of informing me that one can't park here, I'll just move the car. Tell me where I can park and thanks for the warning, I won't park here again."
"You can park there on the other side."
I start up the car and back up and cross the one-way traffic to the other side right in front of the mosque, which seems to me a more likely spot to have a "no parking" sign, but I keep this thought to myself.
My passenger is still with me grinning stupidly at me from time to time.
The head honcho follows us over.
"Well, now that you've told us about Madame," he begins the negociations. "We'll let you off easy this time with just a 6000 francs fine."
I then pull out what I think is my ace. I reach into the glove compartment and pull out an invitation signed by the president of the republic to the year end meeting of the Supreme Court.
"This isn't even my car," I suggest. "Do you really want to haul off one of the supreme court justice's cars? One who's intimate with the Head of State himself?"
"Well, you're the one driving it now!" he retorts, "So it's you who gets to pay the fine."
What is it those Frenchies say? Touché?
At this point, a young man approaches me from the left with a bag of something.
"Are you Dr. James from Bere?"
"Yes." I reply, grateful for the distraction as time is an important element of the bargaining process.
"I've been looking all over for you. I'm the son of the man with the broken femur you operated on last week. I tried to find you earlier at the Mission guest house but I was told you weren't there. Then, my dad told me you were at the National Security Counsel office but I barely missed you there too."
"Yeah, I was there registering our new volunteer for the hospital. He just came back from Denmark with my wife. I called your dad back and told him to have you meet me here."
"So what's up with the gendarmes?"
I explain the situation to him and he starts up with explaining how I'm new to town and don't know the rules and that I'm the big doctor from Bere who just operated on his dad who is also a gendarme and one of there compatriots, etc.
The chief officer seems to be convinced...a little.
"Well, since you didn't really know and since you're here helping us out, we'll only make you pay 3000 francs."
My new friend has now gone over to the other side to talk more intimately with the police. He starts off in French but the officer quickly switches to Arabic saying he doesn't want me to hear their negociations. Unfortunately for him, I now understand a little Arabic and reply in Arabic that I understand him fine, thank you very much for asking.
He looks at me surprised and starts to laugh good-naturedly.
"Well, you obviously have money since you're driving a car so just share some with us for our tea."
"I have no money," I respond in Arabic. "If I did, why would I come from Bere on motorcycles and the common market car?"
The young, ugly, armed gendarme next to me now has a huge gap-toothed grin. He shakes his finger at me in wonder "You...you...you..." and gets out. They all walk off shaking there heads and laughing. Right before getting into their truck they turn one last time and offer a friendly wave goodbye.
As I thank my new friend and offer to carry his sack of homemade pasta to his convalescing dad, Sarah returns with Nathaneal.
It's then I realize that my cell phone has been stolen. In talking more with Sarah, it seems the guy she saw was on the right side of the car and was just pulling his head out of the window. Apparently, his partner greeted me from behind on the left so I'd turn my head long enough for the other guy to reach in the open window and take the cell phone from the central console. A slick manoeuvre.
Just when I thought Tchad was gettting boring!
I'm in N'Djamena to pick up Sarah from the airport. My friend and fellow AHI board member, Chief Justice Aimé, has lent me his Toyota 4-Runner. I take Sarah and her Danish sidekick, Nathaneal, to the central market. I park right in front of the Grand Mosque, just ahead of where the taxis pick up and let off passengers. I roll down the windows and sit back to watch the passersby.
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A few kids come up with their metal bowls asking for alms for the mosque. I chat a little with them in my broken Arabic. One sticks his hand in and is fascinated by seeing the locks go up and down with just the push of a button. Finally, I can't get rid of them, even with the usual "Allah eftah" (God will provide) which should be followed by an "Amin" but instead these kids just say "Ma fi" (no way). Finally, I grab a bowl and toss it to the side and put on a fierce expression. They get the hint.
A young, beak-nosed Arab greets me from behind on the left. I turn my head and greet him back. As I turn back I see Sarah coming up to the window. She's just finished changing money and is about to head out to buy vegetables.
"Who was that guy and what was he doing by the window?"
"Nothing, he was just saying 'Hi'."
"Oh, he just looked suspicious."
"Don't worry about it. See you in a bit."
She heads out again with the green army duffel bag accompanied by Nathaneal.
A brand-new dark green pick up approaches from the left. "Police" is written in bold letters across the door. There are machine gun toting gendarmes in the back and a camo-wearing man with a maroon beret sticks his head out the passenger window, spots me, turns back and says something in Arabic. I hear the word "Nasara" (foreigner or "whitey") and the truck pulls in just in front of me and parks.
"Oh, boy," I think. "Here we go again."
Sure enough, the beret man and a couple of Kalishnikov bearers hop out and approach the right side of the 4-Runner. I'm a bit surprised, however, by their next move.
A young, gap-toothed teenager with his old school Russian automatic weapon opens the passenger door and gets in beside me, his gun slung loosely by his left side.
"Let's go to the police station!" barks the beret-wearing man, obviously in charge. "You're illegally parked."
I guess if I had recently arrived in Tchad I might be soiling my britches at this point, but for some reason I'm not afraid, just exasperated. I try not to sound angry and frustrated as I reply that I didn't know I was illegally parked since there is no sign and I've seen others park there often before.
The chief doesn't budge. I try a new tactic.
"I can't go because my wife is in the market and how will she know where I've gone and how will I find her?" I can see he's not convinced. "Now that you've done your job of informing me that one can't park here, I'll just move the car. Tell me where I can park and thanks for the warning, I won't park here again."
"You can park there on the other side."
I start up the car and back up and cross the one-way traffic to the other side right in front of the mosque, which seems to me a more likely spot to have a "no parking" sign, but I keep this thought to myself.
My passenger is still with me grinning stupidly at me from time to time.
The head honcho follows us over.
"Well, now that you've told us about Madame," he begins the negociations. "We'll let you off easy this time with just a 6000 francs fine."
I then pull out what I think is my ace. I reach into the glove compartment and pull out an invitation signed by the president of the republic to the year end meeting of the Supreme Court.
"This isn't even my car," I suggest. "Do you really want to haul off one of the supreme court justice's cars? One who's intimate with the Head of State himself?"
"Well, you're the one driving it now!" he retorts, "So it's you who gets to pay the fine."
What is it those Frenchies say? Touché?
At this point, a young man approaches me from the left with a bag of something.
"Are you Dr. James from Bere?"
"Yes." I reply, grateful for the distraction as time is an important element of the bargaining process.
"I've been looking all over for you. I'm the son of the man with the broken femur you operated on last week. I tried to find you earlier at the Mission guest house but I was told you weren't there. Then, my dad told me you were at the National Security Counsel office but I barely missed you there too."
"Yeah, I was there registering our new volunteer for the hospital. He just came back from Denmark with my wife. I called your dad back and told him to have you meet me here."
"So what's up with the gendarmes?"
I explain the situation to him and he starts up with explaining how I'm new to town and don't know the rules and that I'm the big doctor from Bere who just operated on his dad who is also a gendarme and one of there compatriots, etc.
The chief officer seems to be convinced...a little.
"Well, since you didn't really know and since you're here helping us out, we'll only make you pay 3000 francs."
My new friend has now gone over to the other side to talk more intimately with the police. He starts off in French but the officer quickly switches to Arabic saying he doesn't want me to hear their negociations. Unfortunately for him, I now understand a little Arabic and reply in Arabic that I understand him fine, thank you very much for asking.
He looks at me surprised and starts to laugh good-naturedly.
"Well, you obviously have money since you're driving a car so just share some with us for our tea."
"I have no money," I respond in Arabic. "If I did, why would I come from Bere on motorcycles and the common market car?"
The young, ugly, armed gendarme next to me now has a huge gap-toothed grin. He shakes his finger at me in wonder "You...you...you..." and gets out. They all walk off shaking there heads and laughing. Right before getting into their truck they turn one last time and offer a friendly wave goodbye.
As I thank my new friend and offer to carry his sack of homemade pasta to his convalescing dad, Sarah returns with Nathaneal.
It's then I realize that my cell phone has been stolen. In talking more with Sarah, it seems the guy she saw was on the right side of the car and was just pulling his head out of the window. Apparently, his partner greeted me from behind on the left so I'd turn my head long enough for the other guy to reach in the open window and take the cell phone from the central console. A slick manoeuvre.
Just when I thought Tchad was gettting boring!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Roadtrip
"I dont' know, I really want to pick you up in the airport, but it'd be hard now. It's pouring down rain, the roads are already bad, the car doesn't start, I'd have to go by motorcycle and public transport. I'd like to see you as soon as possible, but I'm exhausted, plus the extra expense...couldn't you just take a taxi from the airport and then come back on public transport?"
Sarah is supposed to arrive tomorrow in N'Djamena, but with the rainy season and all, I try to excuse myself. Deep down, I feel I should go to meet her though, but she doesn't have to know that!
I haven't decided for sure one way or another, but I get a text message from her later that evening telling me she understands and I should feel free to not come to pick her up, I'll just owe her a ton of back rubs later!
I call Ndilbe, our nursing student who has just finished his 3 month internship and is ready to go back to N'Djamena.
"We leave tomorrow at 5am. Can you arrange some motos for us?"
At 3am, Augustin knocks on my door.
"There's a kid in respiratory distress, can you come see him."
Sure. I haven't been able to sleep anyway thinking about surprising my wife at the airport.
The kid is grunting, wheezing, retracting and has nasal flaring. Severe asthma. I open my office and find a few vials of expired Xopenex that we put in the nebulizer. I tell Augustin to give him some Dexamethazone IM while I hook up the machine.
The kid suddenly comes alive and it's all the mom and I can do to hold him and the mask in close enough proximity for some of the medication to get in his lungs. Despite his best efforts, something must be getting in those tiny lungs as he starts to breath easier. I tell Augustin to start a Quinine drip for malaria, add some Ampicillin in case it's pneumonia that provoked the attack and return home.
I'm too wired now for sure to go back to sleep for a few minutes so I make some egg gravy and toast and finish packing my small backpack, a skirt and t-shirt for Sarah and an army duffle bag to bring back fresh vegetables from the N'Djamena market.
The predawn glow appears. It's cool and humid and a little haze rests across the African plain. Two old Nigerian motorcycles with dim headlights waxing and waning with the speed of the engine and spewing out white, burned-oil-smelling exhaust, limp up to the front gate.
Ndilbe wraps himself up in a turban and we strap on our bags to the back of the motos with old bicycle innertubes.
We're off, with the cool air whipping gritty humidity into our faces.
The road is one long series of mudpuddles with improvised footpaths around most of them extending sometimes into the rice fields. Often we have to just plow through green, muddy water up to midway on the tires. We cross the new bridge and down the other side where the gravel buttress has mostly fallen away with the rains leaving a small middle section carved up with a few metal beams tied together with steel cable barely holding things together. We're through the barrier at the bottom and pass through Tchoua on our way to the hippopotamus lake.
The elevated road through the lake with a central drainage pipe is pock marked with a million ruts carved out by heavy trucks and a billion ridges carved out by the draining rainwater. It's confounded by being made of clay, slickened by the rains making it a bumby slip and slide experience wondering when we'll just slide down into that wide open hippo mouth.
The last stretch before Kelo is completely submerged and we plow our way through and wind our way through the early morning mud streets lined with tiny mud brick shops just yawning a good morning to another day of fasting in this month of Ramadan. A few lonely robed figures stroll through the red tinged early morning fog as we finally hit the pavement and pull up to the "bus station" on the side of the road opposite the air compressor and rickety wooden tables lined with various shapes and sizes of glass bottles filled with an assorted variety and mixture of fuels.
.jpg)
After paying the moto taxi-men and for our bus tickets, a young, turbaned man approaches and greets us. He is chewing on the typical Ramadan teeth cleaning stick. It's the son of the builder constructing our new junior high in Bere. He's on his way to Cameroon to study. I buy some bananas and then confirm his fasting by offering him one which he politely refuses.
We get on the bus and have two of the back four seats. Ndilbe takes one window and I take the other. Next to Ndilbe is another flowing robed, turbaned Muslim spitting occasionally out the window to keep from violating one of the Five Pillars by inadvertantly swallowing his saliva. A fully covered and veiled Muslim woman with dark gloves and stockings makes her way down the aile towards the back. A young Arab in front of me seems concerned that this obviously pious woman may be forced to sit by an obviously foreign and thus necessarily infidel white man. He shouts in Arabic to Ndilbe and the other man to move over which they do.
.jpg)
"Da bas adil" he responds nodding his approval as the deeply perfumed, modest example of virtue makes her way to the seat as far away from me as possible in the same row on a tiny bus. I'm relieved too.
The rest of the four hours passes quickly with a "Tale of Two Cities" and an occasional nap to keep me busy. We arrive without incident in the midst of a vusy market in N'Djamena.
I had planned to catch a taxi straight to the mission guest house, but decide to go with Ndilbe instead and try and arrange to see his nursing school and pay the school fees for the next year.
We walk down the crowded, noisy market street and turn the corner. We try and catch a taxi, but as we're putting our bags in the back, three people have got in the back seat and two in the front. There's only one space left. We start arguing as we have to travel together since I don't know how to get to Ndilbe's place. The woman in the back who'd stolen my spot doesn't budge and just smirks in reply. Finally, a young Muslim girl is kind enough to get out of the front seat leaving me crammed next to a very large woman occupying the other "half" of a tiny Peugot taxi passenger seat.
The trip is short and we take another road with a drainage ditch in the middle filled with small, bare-footed boys searching for something in the muck.
We open the gate to the house and enter the courtyard where we thankfully dump our bags under a shade tree and I thankfully relieve a very overworked bladder in the corner latrine.
The woman of the house, the wife of one of Chad's chief justices, generously lets me use her car which takes us on a bumby ride through the suburbs of N'Djamena to a Goudi looking three story structure where two secretaries sit doing their nails and gossiping in front of empty adminstration offices. Strike out!
I then get a call from Babana Benzaki who has arrived from Nigeria. A former Muslim, originally from Tchad, who converted to Christianity while studying in Nigeria and who is in his last year of public health at Babcock University, Benzaki has come to get the financial support voted on by the last AHI committee. We have many very interesting conversations about health, life and God. In the meantime, Kaitama shows up to get the letter I brought from his brother and Dieudonne shows up from work so we can discuss how I'm going to take off the lipoma from his neck tomorrow and how maybe in return he can let me borrow his car to pick up Sarah from the airport.
It also happens to coincide with the birthday of the four year old son of the Chief Justice who's mom had prepared a birthday feast even though she had invited no one. With nothing but a couple of boiled eggs and some bananas in my stomach since 4:30am I am more than happy to be part of the celebration! We finish off with a deep red Jus d'Osei (Hibiscus flower tea) and some strong, cold homemade Ginger drink.
I finally head to the guest house in the judge's Toyota Four-runner for a few hours rest before the 9pm arrival of my Danish wife.
I stand patiently outside the barred entrance to the baggage claim as various "important" people are let through while others are kept out. Finally, they seem to be letting down their guard and I slip through with the next batch let in.
I wait in front of the door leading to the immigration booths. I had glanced in quickly to see if I saw Sarah's red head without her seeing me and I succeeded. Finally, after an eternity, she appears at the door and looks at me with a shocked look and then starts laughing and saying "no, no, no, I can't believe it." Unfortunately for me, it's not a pleasant surprise at seeing me that has brought on this reaction but shock at seeing my recently smoothly shaven scalp that makes her incredulous. She is very cute with her long red hair pulled up in back with a few ringlets of curls escaping to the sides to run down her cheeks and forehead. I give her a warm hug and breath in the fresh smell of her hair as I kiss her head. It's good to have her back and definitely worth it all!
Sarah is supposed to arrive tomorrow in N'Djamena, but with the rainy season and all, I try to excuse myself. Deep down, I feel I should go to meet her though, but she doesn't have to know that!
I haven't decided for sure one way or another, but I get a text message from her later that evening telling me she understands and I should feel free to not come to pick her up, I'll just owe her a ton of back rubs later!
I call Ndilbe, our nursing student who has just finished his 3 month internship and is ready to go back to N'Djamena.
"We leave tomorrow at 5am. Can you arrange some motos for us?"
At 3am, Augustin knocks on my door.
"There's a kid in respiratory distress, can you come see him."
Sure. I haven't been able to sleep anyway thinking about surprising my wife at the airport.
The kid is grunting, wheezing, retracting and has nasal flaring. Severe asthma. I open my office and find a few vials of expired Xopenex that we put in the nebulizer. I tell Augustin to give him some Dexamethazone IM while I hook up the machine.
The kid suddenly comes alive and it's all the mom and I can do to hold him and the mask in close enough proximity for some of the medication to get in his lungs. Despite his best efforts, something must be getting in those tiny lungs as he starts to breath easier. I tell Augustin to start a Quinine drip for malaria, add some Ampicillin in case it's pneumonia that provoked the attack and return home.
I'm too wired now for sure to go back to sleep for a few minutes so I make some egg gravy and toast and finish packing my small backpack, a skirt and t-shirt for Sarah and an army duffle bag to bring back fresh vegetables from the N'Djamena market.
The predawn glow appears. It's cool and humid and a little haze rests across the African plain. Two old Nigerian motorcycles with dim headlights waxing and waning with the speed of the engine and spewing out white, burned-oil-smelling exhaust, limp up to the front gate.
Ndilbe wraps himself up in a turban and we strap on our bags to the back of the motos with old bicycle innertubes.
We're off, with the cool air whipping gritty humidity into our faces.
The road is one long series of mudpuddles with improvised footpaths around most of them extending sometimes into the rice fields. Often we have to just plow through green, muddy water up to midway on the tires. We cross the new bridge and down the other side where the gravel buttress has mostly fallen away with the rains leaving a small middle section carved up with a few metal beams tied together with steel cable barely holding things together. We're through the barrier at the bottom and pass through Tchoua on our way to the hippopotamus lake.
The elevated road through the lake with a central drainage pipe is pock marked with a million ruts carved out by heavy trucks and a billion ridges carved out by the draining rainwater. It's confounded by being made of clay, slickened by the rains making it a bumby slip and slide experience wondering when we'll just slide down into that wide open hippo mouth.
The last stretch before Kelo is completely submerged and we plow our way through and wind our way through the early morning mud streets lined with tiny mud brick shops just yawning a good morning to another day of fasting in this month of Ramadan. A few lonely robed figures stroll through the red tinged early morning fog as we finally hit the pavement and pull up to the "bus station" on the side of the road opposite the air compressor and rickety wooden tables lined with various shapes and sizes of glass bottles filled with an assorted variety and mixture of fuels.
.jpg)
After paying the moto taxi-men and for our bus tickets, a young, turbaned man approaches and greets us. He is chewing on the typical Ramadan teeth cleaning stick. It's the son of the builder constructing our new junior high in Bere. He's on his way to Cameroon to study. I buy some bananas and then confirm his fasting by offering him one which he politely refuses.
We get on the bus and have two of the back four seats. Ndilbe takes one window and I take the other. Next to Ndilbe is another flowing robed, turbaned Muslim spitting occasionally out the window to keep from violating one of the Five Pillars by inadvertantly swallowing his saliva. A fully covered and veiled Muslim woman with dark gloves and stockings makes her way down the aile towards the back. A young Arab in front of me seems concerned that this obviously pious woman may be forced to sit by an obviously foreign and thus necessarily infidel white man. He shouts in Arabic to Ndilbe and the other man to move over which they do.
.jpg)
"Da bas adil" he responds nodding his approval as the deeply perfumed, modest example of virtue makes her way to the seat as far away from me as possible in the same row on a tiny bus. I'm relieved too.
The rest of the four hours passes quickly with a "Tale of Two Cities" and an occasional nap to keep me busy. We arrive without incident in the midst of a vusy market in N'Djamena.
I had planned to catch a taxi straight to the mission guest house, but decide to go with Ndilbe instead and try and arrange to see his nursing school and pay the school fees for the next year.
We walk down the crowded, noisy market street and turn the corner. We try and catch a taxi, but as we're putting our bags in the back, three people have got in the back seat and two in the front. There's only one space left. We start arguing as we have to travel together since I don't know how to get to Ndilbe's place. The woman in the back who'd stolen my spot doesn't budge and just smirks in reply. Finally, a young Muslim girl is kind enough to get out of the front seat leaving me crammed next to a very large woman occupying the other "half" of a tiny Peugot taxi passenger seat.
The trip is short and we take another road with a drainage ditch in the middle filled with small, bare-footed boys searching for something in the muck.
We open the gate to the house and enter the courtyard where we thankfully dump our bags under a shade tree and I thankfully relieve a very overworked bladder in the corner latrine.
The woman of the house, the wife of one of Chad's chief justices, generously lets me use her car which takes us on a bumby ride through the suburbs of N'Djamena to a Goudi looking three story structure where two secretaries sit doing their nails and gossiping in front of empty adminstration offices. Strike out!
I then get a call from Babana Benzaki who has arrived from Nigeria. A former Muslim, originally from Tchad, who converted to Christianity while studying in Nigeria and who is in his last year of public health at Babcock University, Benzaki has come to get the financial support voted on by the last AHI committee. We have many very interesting conversations about health, life and God. In the meantime, Kaitama shows up to get the letter I brought from his brother and Dieudonne shows up from work so we can discuss how I'm going to take off the lipoma from his neck tomorrow and how maybe in return he can let me borrow his car to pick up Sarah from the airport.
It also happens to coincide with the birthday of the four year old son of the Chief Justice who's mom had prepared a birthday feast even though she had invited no one. With nothing but a couple of boiled eggs and some bananas in my stomach since 4:30am I am more than happy to be part of the celebration! We finish off with a deep red Jus d'Osei (Hibiscus flower tea) and some strong, cold homemade Ginger drink.
I finally head to the guest house in the judge's Toyota Four-runner for a few hours rest before the 9pm arrival of my Danish wife.
I stand patiently outside the barred entrance to the baggage claim as various "important" people are let through while others are kept out. Finally, they seem to be letting down their guard and I slip through with the next batch let in.
I wait in front of the door leading to the immigration booths. I had glanced in quickly to see if I saw Sarah's red head without her seeing me and I succeeded. Finally, after an eternity, she appears at the door and looks at me with a shocked look and then starts laughing and saying "no, no, no, I can't believe it." Unfortunately for me, it's not a pleasant surprise at seeing me that has brought on this reaction but shock at seeing my recently smoothly shaven scalp that makes her incredulous. She is very cute with her long red hair pulled up in back with a few ringlets of curls escaping to the sides to run down her cheeks and forehead. I give her a warm hug and breath in the fresh smell of her hair as I kiss her head. It's good to have her back and definitely worth it all!
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