All About The Hospital
I know that each blog I write, I share little experiences from both parts of my life here in Africa. My hospital life, and my non-hospital life. Since I don’t have a lot of time everyday to write about both, I usually just give everyone a sneak peak. In this entry, I want to share what has been going on in the hospital, and also what the Lord has been doing through the hospital workers.
I don’t know the medical terms for many things, but I will try to fill you in on the good stuff. Since we have had the Doctors here, we don’t have to send patients an hour away to get help when they can’t deliver the baby without a C-section. One woman came into the hospital that was pregnant. After examining her, the doctor concluded that her intestines were twisted, and they had to do surgery on her. They took her into surgery and after the C-section, they tried to work on her intestine. I wasn’t there because I was traveling to Maroua but from what I hear her intestine turned dark red. They finished without doing anything to the intestine. She is still in the hospital now. Ganava, the main nurse for maternity doesn’t think she will live. I’m hoping there is a miracle.
Speaking about C-sections, a side note, the doctors who are from the congo have never even delivered a baby yet so I am hoping and praying that they learn quick. It is a bitter/sweet feeling. Knowing they they haven’t delivered any babies means that I can teach them the things that I have been learning about deliveries. The only thing is that if any complications arise, I hope they know what to do in the situation.
Remember when I told you about the man who had Dengue Fever? Well, he was in so much shock that he passed away the next day. I remember talking to Kalda about his case and asked him why he died. Kalda told me that the family refused to treat him. I sometimes wonder why people bring their family members into the hospital when they don’t want to treat the disease. Dr. James told me one day after having a frustrating conversation with a women who was refusing treatment. He said “What do they expect us to do when they bring people to the hospital. Dance around them and chant, throwing dirt into the air and expect them to be healed?” I understand his point, but I am also American. The way people deal with problems here is very different. The Muslim women especially do not make decisions unless the man is around to make them.
I went to the hospital one day at night. I wanted to look in the ER for anyone who needed help. It seemed like Bouwa was holding everything together pretty well. A woman came in who was 9 months pregnant. She looked very agitated and tired. She was going to be admitted. I took her blood pressure and it was 150/90. In America that might not be deadly, but here no one has high blood pressure like that. I concluded that she had preclampsia. I went home to tell James about it so we all went to go help with a c-section. We were there for probably about an hour before she finally refused to be operated on. She said she needed to wait until her husband came to give the answer. We were all confused at how calm she was in this time of Emergency. When the husband finally did come to tell us what he wanted, he refused the operation as well. He said that the babies were too small to be born…she was 9 months pregnant. I don’t know what happened to her, but hopefully she got operated on soon after she left our hospital because she was in danger of death.
When I first arrived here at the hospital, there was a man who was diagnosed with TB. The hospital workers said that he had been there for quite awhile before my arrival. I checked him after I knew it wasn’t contagious anymore. He was so weak a frail. Not only that, but he was in pain and looked horrible. Slowly but surely we have been treating him. Everyday I have been seeing him come to worship in the mornings. Through the worships and nurses talking to him at his bedside these last few months, he has decided to give his life to Jesus! He got baptized last weekend. Avava was talking to me about it the other day and told me that he discovered something very important! He said, “I never knew that the hospital workers could be evangelists just like pastors! I am excited because now I know we have even more power because God is working through us!” I am forgetting his name at the moment, which is horrible because he knows my name but he looks 10 times better than he did when he first came here and he was healed?
When there is someone in the hospital who needs a transfusion, we get a person with the same blood type in the same day. There is none of this “storing” stuff going on. I love doing transfusions! When I come into the lab and there is someone sitting in the chair where we do transfusion, I get excited. Clara, the lab tech, always knows to get out of the way when there are transfusions patients and I am around. She understands how badly I want poke someone with a huge needle? every time someone comes into a lab for a transfusion, I talk them through the process. It is not the nicest way to tell them what is happening, but I try to make it amusing. I usually say in French, “Little poke right now (for HIV test)… Big poke later!:)” While I’m transfusing them, I ask them if they are tired. If they say no, I tell them “later!”…Lol I know it’s horrible, but it makes them laugh. I also tell those who are afraid not to look, or I just push their head to the side. It helps?
I have never seen worse cases of Hepatitis and Cirrhosis here. The people who come in are like balloons! Their stomachs are filled with fluid! We took care of a guy the other day who came in with the biggest stomach I have ever seen. We have been treating him, and thankfully it has been helping. He is doing much better than he was before.
The nurses and doctors have been doing a great job lately. I have been proud to say I work at the Koza Hospital. I know that we don’t have many supplies, but it is surprising how many things you can do with just a simple needle in this place. I’m amazed at how efficient they are with the products we are given. God continues to save lives and allow lives to be taken away. He has been at work in the lives of the patients and the workers here. Please keep us in your prayers as we try to heal those who come into the hospital each day. Thanks for listening! Until next time…
Posted by Elissa
From Student missonary in Koza Wednesday, December 22, 2010