Our coordinator had lined up a orientation through the hospital, so we got up early and went to the hospital for the tour. Two hospital employee's (Paul and Anthony) gave us the run down on the hospital first. They had a little powerpoint presentation with interesting Coast Provincial General Hospital (CPGH) facts. The most striking detail is that the ratio of nurses to patients is 1:50-70. Talk about under-staffed! They explained how that is their biggest obstacle in providing care for patients -manpower.
Then they gave us the tour of the whole hospital. It is a pretty big place, with over 700 beds total! We went through each ward and met several people from each! It will be nice to know some familiar faces! I came to realize that some wards are better than others in terms of sanitation and contamination -and it seems the orthopedic ward from yesterday was easily one of the worst. That was relieving to know at least, I'm going to try to ease into that area from now on! I start pediatrics next week and I predict that I'll feel the biggest connection to medicine when I spend time there. Walking through it, I was instantly drawn to it. People always tell me that peds is so heartbreaking. So I've been trying to mentally prepare for my time there. I saw a few children in beds as we toured and some seemed to be in really really rough shape. I'm sure it will be eye opening to spend time there.
Easily the most powerful moment of the day was experienced in the Maternity ward, in the labor area. There are little cubicles for each woman in labor, with a sheet as a pseudo door/curtain for separation. They are all alone. There is bed for them and that is about it. No family, no nurses, no doctors...they are all by themselves as they are beginning to push their newborn into this new world. As I kept walking around the ward, with wide eyes, I saw a young young girl (probably 10-12 years old) laying on one of the beds. I tried to ask why there was such a young girl on the bed but sometimes people can't understand my questions so I just let it go. As I turned the corner I saw a little baby on a table. A nurse was wrapping it up and I stepped closer to get a look. The coloration of the skin looked like it still had afterbirth on its skin and I figured it must have just been born. Suddenly the nurse started to smother it as she wrapped the little thing up. I looked back at our 'tour-guide' and he said "still birth."
I now see how difficult working with sick children could be. I haven't been able to stop visualizing that little baby all day long. I wonder if it was the young pregnant mother's child? I don't know. Either way, I can't imagine getting to full term, seeing your child, and losing it instantly. How emotionally draining!
This was towards the end of the tour thankfully because I got a little detached for a while after I saw this. I stumbled around at the back of the pack but I really just wanted to go back and see that baby. Luckily, Whitney, Mark, Andrew, Simon and I went to get a bottle of water and take a little physical/mental break. Our legs were really tired as well from walking around all morning. (the tour/orientation ended up taking over 3 hours!)
After our refreshing cold bottled water, Whitney and I headed back up to the main theater to watch some surgeries. We only had 1.5 hours until we had to leave at this point, so we were anxious to catch something neat! And also eagerly waiting to see how we would feel at the sight! We scrubbed up (complete with borrowed boots.. kinda eww!) and walked in on a gyno surgery on some uterine fibroids. We only caught the tail end of it, but we got to see a blood transfusion because she had lost a lot of blood.
It's just a different setting overall. One time somebody dropped a needle and just picked it back up and put it back on the table. Towards the end, a nurse bumped over the surgical tray and it went flying everywhere, splattering bloody gauze and surgery tools in its path. Overall, the level of organization and order seems to be missing. People are walking in and out of the surgery room, talking on cell phones, laughing and joking and anything you could really think of. It seems to be pretty unprofessional as a whole.
Whitney found an interesting fact about Kenya: the gov't spends more in one MONTH on the interest on their debt than they do in a whole YEAR on health care. Holy bananas, can you imagine all the lives that could be saved if only they had proper health care? It blows my mind how crowded the waiting rooms are in this hospital. Paul and Anthony said that sometimes people show up at 7 in the morning and wait all day only to be told to come back the next day.
Although limited, I have found the staff at the hospital to be very accommodating and inviting! One lady named Cecilia from the casualties ward (emergency medicine) would say "we are not separate (white and black) we are all brothers! You are like my children and I am your mother of a different color!" I really enjoy seeing people with views like this. There is no need to think otherwise in my opinion. I jokingly called her 'Mama Cecilia' the rest of the day.
When we returned to the compound I was really tired and very hungry. Luckily Dolas was around to lend a helping hand! She made these noodles for me (like ramen noodles except they have more spice to them, african style) and they were exceptional! I took a 20 minute power nap and was dead set on getting my laundry done. It takes quite awhile to wash everything by hand and it almost wares your hands raw to squeeze each piece out individually! -How smug do I sound in saying that? It is crazy what we take for granted on a daily basis.
Tomorrow will be another day in the main theater watching surgeries! afterwards we plan on either eating on this floating restaurant that we heard about or going to see the Lion King in the cinema a few minutes away from our compound! I'm really looking forward to it!
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