Making do

It is a bit curious what is and is not available here in Galmi. A lot of patients have cel phones, but then some have no phone at all. Andy who has been looking after Maternity before I came is demonstrating a new monitor this afternoon, along with some reusable vacuums for deliveries (his blog is here), but there are also things like wheel chairs made in part from plastic lawn furniture,

and dettol soap for scrubbing up with instead of using a new scrub sponge every OR. I guess with some dependency on what is donated, you will see interesting variations.

In spite of all this, as I may have mentioned, Galmi is a bit of a tertiary referral centre. I saw a Medicine Sans Frontiers (Doctors without boarders) SUV/Ambulance roll up and drop off some patients here today. It does not appear that they do anything simple in Galmi. The most straight forward stuff is in the out patient department where we try to get the dating right for their pregnancy and start them on some vitamins and malaria prophylaxis. We also do some of the typical testing you would do back home. I learned that the women can get placental malaria, and be very sick, but it does not show up on their blood tests, so everyone who could possibly have malaria gets treated throughout the pregnancy.

The children here are beautiful, and full of joy. They find anything to entertain themselves with, and are always smiling (except when the man with the camera scares them)

The demonstration in the afternoon went very well. Andy speaks a bit of Hausa, but I mostly translated in to french. He is an enthusiastic teacher and he had a very attentive audience.

We are also very grateful to the people / companies that provided the monitor, and the re usable vacuums for delivery and the pelvic model to teach deliveries on.

 I even got in on the teaching!

I am posting this a bit late as I was called back to the hospital, one lady had about 1/4 of the blood volume she should have, and the other lady looked like her pelvis was too small. Fortunately we were able to give the first lady 2 units of blood, and the second lady proved us wrong by having a vaginal delivery. She had been labouring for a day at home before she came in, but the baby came out screaming. Here in Galmi the rule is – if you need a blood transfusion, or if you are going for surgery that might require blood, you need to give back what ever you use. That is, if you were transfused 2 units, your family has to give 2 units, if you are having a surgery that might require 2 units – same thing. Not the same as at home, but it does the job.

Luke 18:17

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.