So yesterday I got sick...vomiting and stomach pains that kept me in bed all day. Which means I did not go to the pediatric ward. So today still feeling sick, I dragged myself over to damage control.
How can things go badly so quickly? There were a bunch of new admissions that
had wrong diagnoses, wrong treatments, or no treatment at all. A blood transfusion given inappropriately. Severely dehydrated baby only given fluids for 4 hours. It goes on and on. I could only work for 3 hours before I was feeling too sick and couldn't hide the dry heaving.Just as I was walking out to go back to bed, I saw Joe, the little boy with the burns. He told the charge nurse to ask me to stay for the cleaning of his burns. This is one of my least favorite things to watch and listen to. But I stayed... He's such a sweet sweet boy.
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Hey!
ReplyDeleteI found your blog through reddit.com -- someone linked it there. I spent about 4 weeks in Uganda with Microsoft working on a data collection system for health workers/national health infrastructure last year as a senior in college. We focused specifically on neonatal (sp?) clinics.
It was so interesting to get a peek in to how health care systems work internationaly and contrast that to what we experience here. From what I can tell, a lot of similar issues if you ignore the lack of technology!! I've graduated and am looking for a job currently, really hoping to get work in this field.
Man, the pictures you posted really take me back to Uganda -- funny that the two countries (Zambia/Uganda) are so far apart but look so similar! I'm very excited to go back to Africa either professionally or as a tourist -- which, I have a question, are there tourist destinations in Zambia? I've heard a lot of great things about that country! There are none in Uganda save a HUGE game resort on the Congo border!
Okay, that's enough commenting from one creepy stranger for now I suppose. Good luck in Zambia and you're doing good work -- more people need to be on the ground there doing the things you're doing!
Cheers,
Brad Heller
brad.heller@gmail.com
Here is a great blog on computers, internet, and technology in Africa! http://whiteafrican.com/about/
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