A day at Karanda

          This week we have been stretched thin with few doctors which has made for an interesting week!  Wednesday I had the opportunity to round on all the patients in the hospital (it happened to be with the nursing students because they were doing their ward management experience).  We saw patients with a wide range of illnesses including meningitis (bacterial, malarial and cryptococcal), TB, CHF, end-stage AIDS, femur fracture, prostate cancer, CVA (stroke), life-threatening anemia from antiretrovirals and children with kwashiorkor, hydrocephalus, myelomeningocele and pneumonia.  I saw post-operative patients who had undergone prostatectomies, hysterectomies, skin grafts, VP shunt placements, cesarean sections, and a thyroidectomy.  After rounding on over 70 patients, it was time for lunch (well, maybe a little past lunchtime :)).  

          After a quick lunch I headed back to the hospital to do an LP (lumbar puncture on a splenectomy patient with fever & headache) and a VP shunt aspiration (to check for shunt blockage) before starting clinic.  During this time, a call from the charge nurse had me racing to male ward.  Our post-op thyroidectomy patient had developed a huge hematoma (swelling of the neck filled with blood) and was desaturating to 69% WITH oxygen.  I began opening the wound, the surgeon came and removed clots of blood as the patient was rushed back to the OR (he has done very well since).  

By now, it was quite a bit past the start time for afternoon clinic.  Fortunately, the clinic staff had been forewarned that there would only be 1 doctor in clinic and they extended much mercy and help to me until reinforcements came later in the afternoon!  The evening continued with call & ended with a successful neonatal resuscitation (Praise God!) and c-section for a young mother with cephalopelvic disproportion.  Walking home at sunrise I was thankful to be here at Karanda, thankful to have shared the day with many of God’s beloved, thankful that He is ultimately in control and thankful that ‘because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail; they are new every morning’(Lam 3:22-23). Very thankful for a brand new day. 

“Do not fail to do something just because you can’t do everything.”  

--Bob Pierce: Founder of World Vision & Samaritan’s Purse

We had such a good time!

Miliary TB--unfortunately real and not just in a textbook