So our week “in charge” at the clinic ran smoothly for the
most part and went by quickly. Seeing how much there is to do really makes me
appreciate all the work Sister Angel does daily. On Friday I spent some time in
the inpatient unit, and saw some tough things. First, on Thursday night before
we were about to come home a young male child came in with severe burns over
most of his left arm, his chin, his back, and a good portion of his upper
chest. His skin was literally hanging off, and raw pink skin was exposed. It
looked extremely painful, and the child and mother were both crying as the
nursing assistant attempted to insert an IV. Apparently hot water had fallen on
him. On Friday he had a dressing change of his wound. I watched as the nursing
assistant removed the gauze bandage from his body, cleaned his skin, applied a
fresh layer of burn cream on him, and then wrapped him in a fresh seat of
gauze. The child was clearly in pain during the dressing change, and even
urinated during the procedure. I have seen burns before, but never to this
extent. Additionally, although only one day had passed since he was burned
already his skin had large blisters on it and his arm had swollen quiet a bit.
It was painful to watch and made my heart ache seeing what he was going
through. I pray that he will recover from the burn, will not get a systemic
infection from it, and that his future scars will not cause him to be self conscious
of the way he will look.
Warning-sad/descriptive medical information coming up
Seeing a burned patient like this was enough for me for one
day, but unfortunately, I witnessed another sad case as well. A mother had come
in Thursday night as well with a potential spontaneous abortion. She was placed
in the female ward and started on IV fluids and medications. Friday morning she
was having severe lower abdominal pain and bleeding. Ali, one of the nursing
assistants, came up to me and told me that he thinks the mother was going to
abort the baby and should be moved to the maternity ward instead. I told Ali I
agreed with him and together we moved her to the maternity ward and then
proceeded to do a brief examination. She was passing large clots at this time
and at this point we were in a wait and see state. An hour later I returned and
found her with the midwife. She had just passed the baby and was extremely
tearful. She was sixteen weeks pregnant and the parts of the fetus were clearly
distinguishable. Having worked in the neonatal intensive care back home I have
seen small babies under 1000 grams, and am not easily shocked by the size of a
premature baby. However, this fetus was unlike anything I have ever seen. It’s
arms and legs were present and its spinal cord intact. It’s head was there but
not attached and it’s eyes were just beginning to form. The placenta was
intact, but still small due to the young gestational age. When a premature baby
dies at home we bathe the baby, dress it and allow the mother to hold it.
However, the baby was about the length of the palm of my hand, and at 16 weeks
they do not bury the child. Instead the fetus was wrapped up in a sterile glove
package and handed to the mother. The mother was alone at this point, and
wanted to hold on to the fetus until her mother arrived so she could show her.
I stayed with the mother for a bit, and then gathered up her belongings and
walked her back to the female ward so that she did not have to stay in a room
with newly delivered babies and happy mothers. She was moved back to the same
bed that she was previously in and she immediately curled up in a ball and put
her bed sheet over her entire body and sobbed. It was heartbreaking seeing
someone go through this and to make things worse she did not have the privacy
afterwards that she deserved. I rubbed her arm and tried to soothe her, but
what efforts can you really do besides be with her as she goes through this. I
wanted to tell her it would be okay, but in reality those words don’t comfort and
don’t mean much of anything (and it also doesn’t help much when you don’t know
how to say that in Rutoorro.) At the end of the day I just wanted to go to the
school and see the healthy and happy children playing or see my village friends
and give them a big hug. We take life for granted too often, and seeing things
like this helps me realize how grateful I am that I am healthy and happy here
in Uganda.
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