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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

Je Suis Content
I have spent the last hour trying to look for my recent blogs because its been so long since I’ve posted, I’ve forgotten where I have left off. If I repeat something, that’ll just be a reminder for you that it was just that important to me? A few weeks ago I was asked to do vespers for the church. Papa Sidi asked me on Monday so I could prepare for it Friday night. That whole week prior my stomach hurt because I was always aware of the fact that I was going to speak Friday night and being nervous makes me sick sometimes. I was sitting talking to one of my good friends in the hospital one day. When I noticed he wasn’t his usual happy self. I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he was a little upset because someone talked about him behind his back and he found out about it. We started getting into a conversation about living by example and it hit me… that was exactly what I needed to preach about! I thanked him for making me realize my sermon title. I feel like the hospital really needs to understand their potential in helping others if they merely live by example and stop blaming others for the problems that happen in our lives. Friday night finally came and I was ready. I wore a traditional African outfit so it would be even more epic when people came in. I felt a little out of place, but I am feeling more and more African everyday. When I got up to the pulpit to preach, before I said anything, someone interrupted and said they wanted the sermon to be translated in French AND mafa. … good thing Dr. James was there. I didn’t realize when I got up to the pulpit that my sermon was probably a little too short so I improvised at the end? God blessed and I think I got my point across well. Basically it was that we are the light of the world, God wants to use us to glorify him… what better way to do that then to live by example, showing how Christ has died for us and how our lives are forever changed as a result! So don’t blame and ridicule, but live by example.
There are many languages spoken here. Mafa, Fulfulde, Houssa, and French. Many other dialects as well. The hospital workers think its funny when they come up to me speaking another language and I don’t understand them… well I have started to learn a little Mafa now so I can communicate a LITTLE bit with everyone. I connect much better with the patients that way. Almost everyone who comes into the hospital speaks Mafa so I get my share of practice.
The other day a man came into the hospital at night. Cailtin and I happen to be there when he walked into the emergency room. He was badly bleeding from his nose… in fact his nose was almost completely off his face. He was in a bad moto accident. We had our camera on hand, thank goodness, so Cailtin took some gnarly pictures. He was happy to pose for us as well. It was like he wasn’t even in any pain… these Africans know how be strong! He was also missing an arm (not from the accident) so we took pictures with it too. He was laughing and joking with us, sticking his arm nub in our faces… it was amusing.
So I think I have successfully broken all there is to break in our bathroom. When I first arrived here, one day I was in the shower. A mosquito was flying around, and I immediately was alert and was sure it wouldn’t come close to me without me killing it. It landed on the wall and I tried to kill it immediately… I ended up hitting the mirror on the wall as well and it fell off the wall shattering on the floor…Accident number one. The second thing I broke was the light. I was trying to fix it and didn’t realize that I hadn’t turned the light switch off (the are opposite here). I put my finger close to the socket and it electrified me. Obviously anything that was in my hand was going to fall, and sure enough the light shattered as well… I promise I won’t break anything more since there is nothing more to break.
I have been here for 3 months now and I have just recently gotten over my second malaria episode. I honestly thought that I was just exhausted from work because I had worked hard the whole two weeks that Dr. James was here. Avava came to my house Saturday night and told me to get a malaria test. I was pretty sure I didn’t have malaria so I said babyishly, “No way, it hurts me when they poke my finger?”. Dr. James started telling me that he doesn’t remember how many times missionaries have denied having malaria and the tests results proved them wrong. I was sure about this one… but he said I was in denial. Sure enough, the next day I went to the hospital, I was forced to have a malaria test, and it was 10,300. High. It was a blessing and a curse because I finally got to have a little time in the morning to rest, but I also didn’t want to be chained to the bed all day. I am feeling great now! I also took a Typhoid test and it came up positive as well. I never treated it, so I don’t think that I ever had it in the first place.
Something really exciting happened last weekend. The night before Sabbath I saw people cleaning out the baptistery. Since I live right next to the church, it’s hard for me to go to the hospital without saying hi to everyone that is in my path (I can’t run away? lol). They were preparing for people to get baptized (obviously)! Sabbath came along, and the church was completely packed! I sang with the choir group and played guitar. After church everyone went outside to see the baptisms. It was a wonderful Sabbath. We danced and sang for a long time! 80 people were baptized! I pray for those who got baptized to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Caitlin and I did the 12 days of Christmas to our friend Clara. We failed the first time we tried because she came out with a flashlight and saw us running away. We acted stupid and never told her it was us, even though it was extremely obvious. No one would do the 12 days of Christmas here because Seventh-day Adventist DON’T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS… I know, shocking. Also, no one would give her a cake like we did. Super American! The last day, we knocked on her door, opening the door, we sang to her “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” Love it. She thanked us over and over… We had so much fun in the process
It has been pretty crazy this last week. Since it was Caitlin’s last week, we were inspired to do all the things we said we would do before she left. Sleep outside under the stars, sleep at Zara’s house, climb a mountain, Meet Avava’s fiancé, and ride a donkey. We successfully accomplished those things in one week. One night we brought my little mosquito net outside and slept under the stars…epic. The second night, we slept at Zara’s house. Surprisingly we were more comfortable at Zara’s house then we were sleeping outside our own house. They treat American’s like royalty! I slept right next to Zara and I felt so protected! That Sabbath we went with Bahana to a mountain. It was an amazing experience except for the fact that we almost died! Bahana is a crazy motorcycle driver. We almost ran into a bike rider once, and another time we hit a pothole that he didn’t see and I almost bounced right off… praise God I was holding on tight. We worked so hard to get up to the top of the mountain that the view looked even more amazing. We took 300 pictures that day. When we went to Maroua we met Avava’s fiancé. She is my age! She is still technically in high school, but it is a different system here. We visit her at her school. She is perfect for Avava. While we were waiting for Avava to say goodbye to his love, Cailtin and I were sitting in the car. We had talked earlier that it wasn’t possible to ride a donkey unless there was one randomly in Maroua. Sure enough, a few minutes later a man on a donkey came riding up. I knew he didn’t speak English, but I asked him if I could ride it, looking ridiculous as I motioned “riding a donkey” to him. Finally we got the chance, in the meantime gathering quite a crowd. I bet everybody was whispering to each other in French “Nanzara…” (White person—don’t know how to spell it).
There are just a few fun facts/things that I want to mention before I leave because there is just so much that I can’t write it all out in one blog at this point. I talked to the pastor the other day when we were coming back from Maroua. I asked him how many churches he pastured. He said 32!!! I am already proud of my Father for keeping up one church! 32 is a little much don’t you think?
I was doing rounds with the doctor the other day. He brought me to this one patient and after talking for more than five minutes; he nonchalantly told me that the patient had TB and was admitted yesterday (doesn’t he know that it is contagious?). I quickly tried to explain to him my fear of TB and then left the room immediately. They don’t necessarily take precautions for those kinds of things.
Today when I woke up, I realized that Avava had bought me some apples from the market in Maroua. It was my first apple I have had since I’ve been in Africa… truly heavenly.
The baby that I wash everyday left because he is a healthy child now. I pray he will continue to be well taken care of. I have had so much to do every night since Caitlin has left so I went to bed at 2 am last night. I am trying to keep my eyes open during the day. I am planning on spending Christmas in Koza. It was not my first option, but I think I’m going to be able to give gifts to people who are not as fortunate as me. I just received three huge packages. One from my mother and the other two from Joanna Miracle! Thank you thank you so much church for all of your support! I continue to keep you in my prayers, always giving thanks to God.
The choir is practicing every day until January 1 for a big concert. It is killing me, but I am the guitar player and one of the main leaders. Also, the church is having a week of prayer. This means when our choir starts practice at 3:30 I don’t get to go home until around 7:30 pm… God keep me patient. I’m tired
During worship at the church tonight I was flipping through my notebook. I found a poem I wrote before coming to Africa. I remember writing one day in summer school when the teacher was boring me. I had so many thoughts going through my head about coming here, so I just picked up my pen and wrote what I was thinking, and this is what came out. It’s called “My Stream on Consciousness”
Take me to a place in need
Where I will grow spiritually
Giving you each day and hour
Please fill me with your power

I pray that I would be to them
Like you when you made your decent
I’m only human; I make mistakes
Holy Spirit consume me to change my ways

So I turn to you today
Refine and mold me like clay
Prepare me for this journey somehow
Only you can carry me through now

I approach your throne of grace
With boldness I am in this place
Be with me and show me mercy
As I help to lead the thirsty
God has answered my prayer. He has given me mercy grace and power!
Ps. Arielle, Cecil’s baby boy is about a year old now. He successfully said my name the other day. Audrey is Zara’s little child. He is about 4 years old and he is learning English from me. Now when I come to the house I ask him “Audrey, how are you?”. He slowly says “I…a..am..ffiin…ee. Thank…you”. He knows it though?
Posted by Elissa

Thursday, December 9, 2010
Just When I Thought It Couln’t Get Any Busier
The exact same day that the main nurse left to work for the government, three doctors came to help in the hospital. I love when God provides like that! There are two from the Congo and one (An American) that has been in Tchad for 7 years now. He is a surgeon so all of the surgeries that we were being postponed came back. It has been a hectic two weeks. I have not gotten the sleep I’ve wanted, but I have had experiences to fill it. It has been a little hilarious talking to the Congo doctors. They are not married so you can imagine how they would act toward Caitlin and I, single as well! They also don’t know very much English as well. The first day I met Dr. Roger, he started talking about learning English. I was expecting him to ask me to set a day apart to teach him English. I was just about to say, “Yeah, I can help you. When Do you want to meet?” Instead, he asked me to marry him! He asked me like it was just a favor that he wanted. Don’t worry America, I’m not going to marry someone just so they can learn English!:) I think I’m smarter than that. It seems that the other Doctor has a little crush on Caitlin as well. Now that Caitlin has malaria, the other doctor asks about her all the time. I just tell him that she is sick and can’t come to work. He looks so depressed. The other day I had to say it… “Tu ‘iam Caitlin!” (You love Caitlin!). Anyway… lots of fun.
One day when we were in surgery, Caitlin was trying to learn as much as she could about the man coming into surgery. She asked the question “Is this man circumcised?” The reply didn’t come back from the surgeon but Dr. Solomon, the man who likes Caitlin. Now remember… he doesn’t speak English very well. He turned to her and said “Do you like that?” I think it has been 4 or 5 days since that happened and I still have bursts of laughter. I’m not sure he knew what he was saying.
Lets get down to some medical business now. As I said before, it has been extremely busy in the last two weeks. I have done more in these two weeks than I have this whole month I think. We have done many surgeries. I have helped with many surgeries. 2 appendicitis, prostate, 2 hernias, hysterectomy, bisectomy, removing cysts, and more. I was ecstatic to see these surgeries. The general doctors from the congo are not surgeons, so helping James has been a learning experience. He tolerates them? there are times when they are not doing their job right, and James gets frustrated, understandable. It has been crazy watching the surgeries because our instruments are so dull! They try to cut a suture and they have to try two times to cut it. We need supplies! We are getting by though. I am the person who helps Ganava during surgery. Both him and I are the people who aren’t sterile. We run around getting things that the doctor needs. Our job is to prepare the patient for surgery, putting a blood pressure cough around the patients arm as well as oxygen. Then after giving the IV and starting the fluids, we prepare the medications such as getting the Epinepherine, Saline, and the blood bags. During surgery we are the ones who keep the patient alive. If her blood pressure goes down, we add more fluids, if she looses oxygen, we open her airway. Its pretty nice because we get to see and be apart of the surgery without worrying about touching anything that’s not sterile. We also give the surgeon sutures and irrigation when he needs it. When the patient is done with surgery, we clean up! (That’s always the most fun!!!…).
I have learned a lot about surgery lately. One day for some reason, one of the congo doctors didn’t show up. He asked if I wanted to scrub in. What do you think I said??? OF COURSE! I got ready and got to help with an appendicitis surgery. I held the tongs in place and helped with suctioning out the excess blood and liquid. This woman had typhoid so from the moment we operated on her; there was typhoid fluid everywhere! At the end of the surgery when James was suturing up the opening, he handed me the sutures and said, “Go for it!” I had never sutured anything in my entire life, and now I was about to suture someone’s abdomen! I took those sutures with confidence and sutured away… James was talking me through it of course. I know he reads this blog so, thanks for that experience James, it was exciting?.
Last Friday I accepted an invitation to preach at the church for vespers. Preparing took up a lot of my mind. I was very absent-minded most of the time because I wanted to share with this village the importance of keeping God in focus! Of course, when Friday night came, my stomach started hurting because I was nervous. I prayed that God would calm my nerves. I had peace throughout the whole sermon! You might think that I preached in French… sorry, I’m not that good yet? I didn’t know that when I got up to the podium that the church wanted translations from English to French, and from French to Mafa. James was gracious enough to come and help. He is the only one who knows English perfectly. Thank God he was here! So, my sermon was translated into two different languages. It went really well, and God blessed! What made it even better is that I finally had a traditional outfit made for me! I wore it just for that night! I am for sure African now!
I’m not lying about being African now. I know that I get cold in America, but getting cold in Africa… that is just wussie style! Well, I do wear sweaters at night, meanwhile thinking, “How am I going to survive in America!”
I didn’t have a lot of sleep this weekend. After I preached, my father called asking me to get on the Internet in the morning. That is easy to say but very hard to do here. I spend almost the whole night trying to get on the Internet after borrowing a friends computer stick. It was midnight by the time I went to sleep and I had to wake up at 4:45 am to talk to my church family! The Internet failed and all my hard all night long work went down the drain, but it was worth it because I got to talk to my church! I wish I could have seen everyone? Dr. James offered me an opportunity to fly back with him and work at the hospital he is working at in Tchad. He told me about some missionaries there and I know one of them! Emily Wilkins!!! I was planning on going for Christmas to see them, but I heard, unfortunately, that Emily as well as a couple others opened up a pressure cooker and got pretty badly burned. Please pray for them as they head back to America soon. I would have loved to see them, but now I don’t think it is possible.
Well, this is the latest of what my life has been like here in Africa. I’m waiting impatiently to see my mother and Diane soon! I wish I could see everyone. Have a happy holiday season and keep Caitlin and I in your prayers as we continue to follow in God’s leading here in Koza. I am amazed at how many people he has brought me to. I now sometimes speak a little Mafa to the patients because that is the only language they know. It is incredible to know that I can communicate and be compassionate with patients that I don’t even know two words of what I’m saying. They just love me for the simple fact that I am caring for them. Well, I’m thinking of home during this season, but its really tough to keep in mind that it is Christmas time when it is so hot during the day. Caitlin and I pasted a Christmas tree on our wall with construction paper. It even has little paper ornaments!
Ps. The child who I helped deliver and whose mother almost died of blood loss (the one I gave my blood to)… He has pustules all over his body and my job is to clean him three times a day. I call him Bill? I am trying to teach the family how to take care of him. I’m afraid that he is going to die because all of her children have died after a few days… He is a miracle child!
Posted by Elissa

Hello Friends,
This message is from my friend Dr. Appel who is visiting Koza for a week or
two. I hope you enjoy

In many ways, being in Cameroon is like a vacation. I came down from
N’Djamena with Dr. Roger and Dr. Solomon, our two congolese doctors
who’d just joined us in Chad but were chased off by the psychopathic
behavior of our local District Medical Officer who threatened to throw
them in jail the first day they arrived if he saw them in the
hospital. It’s been 6 weeks of running around trying to meet all the
requirements he’s listed despite the fact that the local Regional
Medical Officer (his boss) and the governor gave the docs the ok to
start practicing. Finally, since the Koza Hospital in Northern
Cameroon has been without a doc for 3 months, I brought them here
where we have been welcomed with open arms by all the local
authorities, the hospital staff and the local church who all keep
thanking God for answering their prayers and providing them with
doctors so they don’t have to refer c-sections an hour away over bumpy
mountain roads to the nearest public hospital which is sketchy at best
if they don’t die en route.

So, I’ve felt an oppressive load fall off my shoulders, a load I
wasn’t even completely aware of until I was in an atmosphere where
people were happy to have me and do everything to help rather than
menace and threaten and coerce and intimidate. All in all, it’s been
embarrassing because in 7 years in Chad it’s the first time I’ve ever
had a real problem with a Chadian, and to have it happen when I
finally find some young doctors willing to come and help me, it’s
discouraging as well. But, then again, Koza has it’s own difficulties
as well.

I walk into the surgery ward the first day in Koza. A young boy had
fallen out of a tree 3 days ago and cut open his upper lip. I take
off the bandage and see that the nurses have done an excellent job of
suturing what seems to have been quite a complex laceration. I notice
that besides his swollen face, the boy is favoring his right arm which
is wrapped in some rags with sticks tied together in a splint around
the entire forearm.

“Does he also have a broken arm?” I ask the nurse who rushes over to
look.

“I don’t know what that is, some traditional bone setter must have
snuck in here last night. It wasn’t there yesterday.”

The boys’ father, a short, man standing straight with a white skull
cap and a dirty blue robe smiles pleasantly and confirms the nurses
questionings.

I unwrap the arm to take a look. The arm slightly swollen and tender
over the distal radius. It seems to be reduced well. A simple
fracture.

“We can put a short arm cast on it for three weeks and it should heal
fine.” I get ready to move on, but the father says something harshly
in Mafa, his mother tongue. I don’t understand a word and look
questioningly at the nurse who looks sheepish.

“He says, no plaster. He’s had it once on his arm all the way to the
shoulder, but he didn’t bring the kid here for the broken bone, just
the cut lip. The bone setter says that in two weeks he’ll take off
the sticks look at it and proclaim it healed so he prefers that. No
plaster.”

“Did the cast work for him when he broke his arm years ago?” The
nurse translates for the father who smiles and nods while moving his
arm briskly in all directions and flexing to show he has no problems
as he spouts off some shotgun sentences in Mafa.

“He says he has no pain and can work all day in the fields for
years…but no plaster for his son.”

I spend about another 15 minutes trying to reason with the man who
just keeps smiling and refusing the nice doctor who just doesn’t have
a clue about broken bones and how fast they can heal in the hands of
the right witch doctor. I move on.

That evening I go to the ER to see a pregnant woman with high blood
pressure. She says she is 8 months pregnant and has swelling in her
legs. In fact, her legs are extremely edematous and she is hugely
pregnant. I examine her belly and while she doesn’t have pain or
bleeding, i feel the fetal presenting parts so well I’m afraid of a
ruptured uterus. She says she has been having contractions for 3
days. I bring out the ultrasound and find that there is no ruptured
uterus, but rather two healthy twins at term. With the added
complication of twins, the fact that they are at term and her pre-
eclampsia, I decide the best thing is to do a c-section, take out the
twins with as little risk as possible and treat the pre-eclampsia as
well by removing the pregnancy.

I calmly call over the woman’s mother and explain. She is
categorically against it. She says they have to wait for the father
and the husband. The husband is in Nigeria and the father is in the
village 10 km away. I nurse asks her is she has a phone number. Yes,
but her phone’s battery is dead. I borrow a phone and try to call the
husband. No answer. The nurse calls the father. No answer. I
recommend the mother go get the father so we can operate tonight. 10km
on a moto taxi is not far. She refuses. Says it’s dangerous at
night. I have them sign a paper saying they refused treatment and go
home to sleep.

The next morning I see the woman and her mom. She says she went to
the village but didn’t bring back the father. Soon the husband shows
up. He seems educated and understands my reasons for wanting to do a
c-section but says without the father’s ok, he can’t agree to it. The
mother told the nurse last night she doesn’t understand why we want to
operate. Her daughter is walking, eating, talking and doesn’t seem
sick. When asked why they came to the hospital then, she had no good
answer.

Finally, later in the morning, they take the girl home. I find out
later that they must have thought I was an idiot since I tried to show
them the edemas and blood pressure to show that the girl was really
sick. Apparently, one nurse told me that night at the house, the Mafa
know that if you have edemas, it’s because you’re going to have
twins. So I was trying to tell them the edemas were caused by a
sickness when they knew perfectly well it was just the twin pregnancy
that caused that and that obviously I didn’t know a thing and couldn’t
be trusted.

That same night, I see a 13 year old girl with classic symptoms and
signs of acute appendicitis. I sit the father down on a bench in the
ER in front of the nurse who translates as the girl writhes in pain on
the bed behind me. The father listens attentively and then tells me
that she has worms, maybe tenia, and that she needs some good bark or
roots. I explain again. He says, ok, just give her some pills
tonight and we’ll see how she does tomorrow. I’d already started an
IV and I pointed out that she was still in obvious pain. He countered
with the fact that it was probably because she was sneaking off with
some boy getting pregnant or something. Another wasted half and hour
later and I go home as the father insists that the nurse take out the
IV and let them take her home where she can get some appropriate
witchdoctor cure for what ails her.

At least one story has a happy ending as the next morning the other
family members bring the girl back saying she was crying all night
long and they want her to be operated on which we do without
complications and send her off to a hopefully speedy recovery as we
hope and pray the young pregnant girl somehow either delivers ok at
home or comes back before the twins are dead or she’s in a coma or
seizing.

But at least they all like me here…so far…