ER

While having dinner last night at Julie’s house, Sheila received a call from the head nurse at the hospital. Three emergent surgery cases had come in since afternoon and hospitals only surgeon is unexpectedly out of town. Two of the cases had been successfully transferred to Butari, the next closest hospital with surgery capabilities. The third case was a soldier with a suspected head injury. After her phone conversation Sheila asked if Naomi and I would go down to the hospital and “have a look at the soldier.” We arrived in the ER to find it full with only one poor nurse taking vital signs on the next bed.
We found our soldier unresponsive with a large palpable mass on his back. I suspect he may have been bleeding from a lacerated spleen and traumatic brain injury. He was too unstable to transfer to another hospital and there was no vehicle available to take him anyway. Sadly, there was nothing to be done and the man died 30 minutes later.
In the mean time, something on the next patient seemed to be alarming. When I looked behind the curtain I found an unconscious man lying face down in vomit gasping for breath and a malfunctioning oxygen concentrator.
Everyone helped to reposition the patient and we got the oxygen concentrator momentarily working again (it still required someone “rebooting” it every three minutes) but the patient had already aspirated. There was no suction available. His oxygen levels went from 47% to 88% and we decided to make a break for the ICU.
The whole night was an intense experience for everyone. I am beginning to understand how things work here and the everyday challenges that the staff face while caring for their patients. It is very different here…