A Day at Ilula

Thursday, January 31, 2013

It was an interesting day.  We started the day by saying goodbye to Dr. Jane, Dede  Ouren and Mary Thompson.  It was great to have them all.  We had the privilege of keeping Mary and Dede an extra week due to some scheduling difficulties that worked to our advantage.  They had a great time and again it was to our advantage.  This was a synergism for us with Jane Casselton too.  She is originally form N. St. Paul, now a 4^th year medical student at Tulane, planning on obstetrics and gynecology.  She worked hard, did well and was an integral part of the team.  She got lots of C-section and delivery experience, we got a great resource.

We went on rounds after morning report.  We saw two septic neonates, one three days, the other two weeks old.  We pondered the proper treatments.  One needed an IV that was difficult.  She needed to be off oxygen for an hour.  I hope she is improved by morning.  The other was doing a little better. 

Next, we saw a young man injured playing “football” yesterday evening.  He was having increasing belly pain and looked awful.  He had an acute abdomen.  Among several possibilities would be a ruptured spleen.  He was transferred to Iringa.  Likely he got an exploratory surgery in lieu of the CT scan he would get in the US.

We also saw a kid who looked quite scared.  He had a swollen foot, but Dr. Saga said he was out of the woods by about 4 hours after his snakebite and this was the next morning.  I would still look scared, I am sure!  He was discharged.  It wasn’t a black mamba.  Or a spitting cobra.

This afternoon, we put on a three-hour conference on hypertension.  Tomorrow it is diabetes.  It went well today.  The Doctor-in-Charge said it was well received by the attendees.  Actually, he said they thought it was “Great!”  We were pleased.  Of course Dr. Rite said he thinks we should do some conference for them every year!

At this moment some of the women are locked out of their residence.  Somehow the old-style key broke off in the lock.  Ah!  Success!  Dr. Moody and my Leatherman got the door open.  Whew!

Sadly, we learned that the boy we sent to Iringa died in surgery.  So did one of the babies.  Sometimes we are helpless even when we know what to do.

Just a normal day at Ilula Lutheran District Hospital.  Then there is tomorrow.