Muzungu Moments '11-2

Lightening is Striking Again...
Last night after my class session I went down to the emergency room to track down Lisa and to see what was going on. As I was walking down the hill, two ambulances went speeding past me. As I got down to the ER entry there was a lot of commotion. All of the ER beds were full and there were crying babies, and people moaning on stretchers all over. I couldn’t find anyone in the ER who spoke English and Lisa was nowhere to be found so I ran back up to house to see if I could find her and we could all go to the ER to help.
As it turns out,5 people who had just been stricken by lightening had been brought in from a village clinic; two little boys and three women. One of the women had a baby strapped to her back at the time of the strike and had been thrown to the ground baby and all. We examined all the patients for signs of arrhythmias and burns, looking for entries and exits of electricity. One of the boys had burns on his neck while another women was found to have burns on her back and yet another with burns on her legs. The infant was assessed for potential injuries from the mother’s fall but checked out as normal.
All of the patients were admitted for observation overnight. Lisa was able to do a little education about rhabdomyolysis and the importance of administering fluids and assessing labs. This morning when we went to round on the patients, no labs were available. We also had difficulty even finding the patients as nobody seemed to know where they got transferred to. Fortunately, when we found them, all of the patients appeared stable but the overall experience of watching how this situation was handled was quite interesting. The doctor we were working with had never seen lightening strike victims before and I had only seen one under very different circumstances. What an interesting day!