Sunday April 5 2015

Today is Sunday, April 5 Easter Sunday

Made rounds at the hospital. Unfortunately a lady with a impending rupture of the uterus from pregnancy died during during her operative procedure. Dr. Victoria's tried her best to save this patient but she had to do surgery with a hemoglobin of 2.0  During the operation the patient at least got one unit of whole blood but this was not enough to have any life-saving impact. One of the patients we admitted with obtundation died as well. We we at times don't know exactly what we are treating and don't clearly have a good idea of what is going on with our patients. When they do get better we are very grateful.

We are getting a better grasp on the culture. One of the patients had a home circumcision. He is of the Muslim faith and approximately 25 years of age. He apparently could not afford to get a circumcision at a healthcare Center and therefore his father arranged for a local religious leader to perform his circumcision. Unfortunately he developed  severe cellulitis from this procedure. I saw a woman today with disseminated chickenpox. She apparently acquired this from her infant. I'm concerned they both may be infected with HIV. According to one of the nurses, the women here of Christian faith have only one husband but their husbands can have several wives. I'm not sure we have a good grasp of the amount of HIV in this area.

Jeff saw a patient with a large incarcerated inginual hernia. Fortunately it was reduced by Dr. Tim although I am not sure how long it will stay within the abdominal cavity. Although Jeff  has orthopedics on his mind he was ready to intervene with the knife to repair this patient's inginual hernia. 

All in all, we are enjoying everyone's company and learning a lot about the frustrations and joy of delivering healthcare in northern  Ghana and Nalerigu.