Day 58-61

Your life doesn't get better by chance; it gets better by change!

This is my final day in Cape Coast before I set off to begin another great adventure. Tomorrow morning I leave for the Eastern Region of Ghana to live with a new host family and work at the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital for one month. I am filled with mixed emotions about the change as my current host family has been amazing, the food overall fantastic, and knowing my routine and what to expect on a daily basis. I do think in all I am ready for a change though to see what kind of an experience this new opportunity has to offer!

My last two days at the hospital were spent in the E.D. working alongside nurses and staff who clearly were in no hurry to help any of the patients no matter how emergent the case was. On top of the lazy staff, no doctor was on duty the previous night so the department was filled with people who had only been treated with basic care, as no doctors were available to write orders or even assess the severity of conditions. People who arrived in late afternoon one day were just being seen at 9 am the following morning. Some laid outside, others lining the hallway on stretchers, wheelchairs, or sprawled out on the waiting room chairs. The hard part is when someone new rushes through the doors, the staff basically sit and stare as the family struggles to provide personal assistance to their loved ones. It was one of those really frustrating situations where I stood feeling completely helpless when so much needed to be done.

On doctor rounds, there was an elderly man who was in obvious respiratory distress and likely malnourished, a 9 year old boy who had fallen from the back of a truck and encountered a severe laceration to the back of his head (skin from the entire occipital area was missing and the surrounding area was hanging loosely from the skull), a 20 year old with peritonitis, severe dehydration, and confusion, teen with PID, and one case of food poisoning. As the day progressed, multiple patients came through the door presenting with anything from malaria, appendicitis, nausea and vomiting, burns, DKA, splenomegaly, labor, etc. My role unfortunately consisted of only taking vital signs and putting the patient folder in a stack to wait for the doctor. I notified the nurses if I found any value outside the normal range (such as a temp of 104) but they looked at me like so what, what do you want me to do about it?

A lot of supplies are recycled or made to work for multiple purposes. For an NG tube, the collection bag was the urinary catheter bag. The ends of the two tubings don't fit together though so the adapters are cut off both using a surgical blade, a slit is made down one side, and the other is squished into the small opening. It is then secured with tape but really doesn't provide for a tight fit and gastric contents leak out onto the patients gown. Three trauma patients entered into the E.R. after being involved in a car accident. They all had shards of glass covering their bodies. All had really bad cuts on their faces and arms but one was the most severe. He was attended to by basically all of the staff on duty thus everyone else admitted to the E.D. were ignored. This guy had a broken femur on one leg and tibia on the other. They don't have splints so instead searched the entire hospital for a cardboard box. It is then transformed to work as a leg splint and secured with gauze wrap. It once again makes me realize how easy and accessible we have it to care and proper equipment. 

My weekend was spent relaxing at home, going to the center of town for the last time and buying a few souvenirs, and even treating myself to lunch- a fresh glass of milk and a fresh vegetable salad! I then spent a considerable amount of time playing with Del, Mel, Angel, and Nanaba. I even decided to attend the Catholic church with them on Sunday which lasted from 7-10. The basic concepts and traditions during the mass were the same as in the U.S. but one thing they surpass us in is the singing, dancing, and offerings. Actual gifts are brought forward wrapped and presented very fancy. I saw anything from toilet paper and canned goods to Milo and a crate of eggs. No service would be made complete without having to stand up in front of everyone to introduce myself and where I am from as a way of recognition and welcome.

Not sure what kind of internet access or connection I may have at my next destination but I hope to continue with the biweekly updates... bye for now!