This time the kidnapping charges would have been justified...(posting from the road)

I won’t bore you with the mundane details that comprise our clinic days. It was similar to any previous clinic day, a mixture of humour and horror. Here is a bit about a couple of my most memorable patients.

Case 1
A 24 year old female sat down in front of me holding a baby wrapped in a towel – not unusual. She complained of the usual symptoms of GERD and bone pain. She had also had registration write and additional problem on the form – “convulsions”. With the assistance of the interpreter we were able to decipher that she has full body convulsions when the moon is full. They generally last two days in duration. As we don’t stock anti-psychotics in the make shift pharmacy, I suggested that she attempt to visit one of the free clinics in town. We asked if the baby needed to be seen and were told “no, she is fine”. Both David and I became concerned at this point that we hadn’t seen the baby move too much and just wanted to have a look. So under the guise of admiring the cute baby we peeled back the towel and found a horrifically emaciated baby.

This was the most malnutrioned baby I have ever seen. She was two months old and every single one of her ribs was visible. There was absolutely no muscle tone anywhere on her body. I, who have never gravitated towards babies, have never wanted to snatch a baby and run so much in my life. I held that baby for a bit while we attempted to make arrangements to get mom and baby to a clinic down the mountain later that week where she would qualify to receive some formula milk to help supplement breast milk in order to gain weight. But this plan would require follow up...I have no doubt she will be there on Thursday, as we have arranged for a driver and I have spoken to the clinic, but I worry about the future. In order to bring a baby back from the brink like this, extensive commitment would be needed from the mother – the mother that thinks the full moons give her convulsions. So while I sat there that, this teeny little baby gazing up at me, I knew in my heart of hearts that she would die soon. Maybe not this week, but given her lot in life (6th most malnourished country in the world, mountain home, crazy mom)...she would not be long for this world.

Case #2
The tragic smell of Harborview (or B hallway for any TBRHSC folks reading this) wafted across my nose just after I finished devouring my peanut butter sandwich. I slowly turned, wondering if this was all just a dream and I was going to need to call for 4-point restraints in a minute, when in stumbled an inebriated man in a cowboy hat asking for suture removal.

Normally a rather simple procedure requiring no medication...in this case however...it was a good thing he “self medicated” prior to arrival. I asked how long the sutures had been in – “15 days”. “15 days” is the standard answer, kind of like the “I just had two beers”. My guess, those would have been at least a month.

So in lieu of any sort of additional sedation, we gave this inebriated man a lollipop to suck on while Lisa and I started to dig the sutures out of his clearly infected skin. He moaned once about dolor (pain), so we gave him a fresh lollipop and all was well. It took some time but after the sutures were finally removed, and a lesson on how drunk machete use was never a good idea, our patient stumbled out the door and on his way. (Tragically the smell made me miss a lot of you...)
The rest of the day was filled with parasite ridden children and aches and pains associated with carrying water and wood. It was a super busy morning thus allowing our afternoon to pass fast and us time to get back to our home base in time to assemble water filtration systems that had recently been purchased out of donations. These relatively simple containers will be given to families who do not have access to fresh water, a method to be able to remove parasites, bacteria, dirt etc – and fresh water has the ability to fix more health problems than anything our clinic will be able to do.

For a great video on how “Water changes everything”, please visit this website...
http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/