Saturday May 12
What a week. I wish I could’ve written every day because
every day there was something worth writing about. Every day we had cases and
surgeries that I saw for the first time; every day we met with obstacles,
frustrations, and medical challenges we would not have had to face had these
cases presented themselves in America.
Saturday night there was the midnight “kidnapping” of Chad
and meeting face-to-face with two hippos we had disturbed after throwing him
into the river and singing Happy Birthday off-tune at the top of our lungs.
Sunday I rode the moto with Chad a few kilometers away to
find 3G network for an hour of “unlimited data” by a giant termite hill in what
seemed to be the middle of the Sahara Desert.
Monday was my first day rounding on patients. I saw severely
malnourished kids, two hippo bite cases, awful trauma cases, and mothers whose
newborn babies had just died.
Tuesday in the OR we removed a keloid the size of an orange
on a 19 year old’s face. Then there was a fairly large pediatric umbilical
hernia (the incidence of umbilical hernias here is outstanding. The Chadian
tradition of yanking babies’ umbilical cord off instead of allowing it to fall
off could be a contributing factor). That was followed by a D&C, a hippo
bite reconstruction on the leg, and bilateral massive psoas abscesses removal. “Dr.
Danae” (as the local staff affectionately call her) and her surgical skills
continue to amaze me.
Wednesday was a tough day. There were multiple occasions of
patients’ families trying to take advantage of the hospital which Dr. Danae had
to take care of on rounds, in addition to rounding on all the services and
performing all the scheduled and emergency surgical cases of the day. We worked
non-stop (Dr. Danae usually works through lunch, as does her surgical staff)
until 10pm. The last two cases of the day were very complicated C-sections. I
set my alarm for 2am and went to check in on the mom and baby pairs that we had
just delivered. While rounding on them (we honestly did not know if some of
them would live until the morning), a L&D nurse grabs me and points to the
labor and delivery room. I follow her in and met two women in labor. The first
one was complete and thrashing on the bed. We helped her down and had her lie
on a mat on the floor to avoid the potential of her falling off the bed. The
nurse then tried to explain her concern to me but as I do not speak French I
really had no clue what she was trying to tell me. I did pick on the fact that
she wanted to call Dr. Danae. I didn’t realize why until my patient started to
push and I saw the cervical prolapse. She was a multipara, however, so her
second stage of labor did not last long and before I knew it I had delivered
her baby boy on that mat on the ground. I was praying the entire time and was
extremely thankful the delivery went smoothly overall and we had a healthy mom
and baby (and she then stopped thrashing!). I went back home to sleep a few
more hours before morning, sleepy, yet grateful to God for keeping our mommas
and babies alive.
The case that stood out to me on Thursday was the repair of
a man’s football-size inguinal hernia. Not only did his scrotum contain a large
portion of his intestines, it also had housed his bladder.
Friday we had more D&Cs, a pediatric bladder stone
removal (likely caused by schistosomiasis), and a giant leg abscess I&D and
heel debridement. The patient had come in the previous day; I had seen her in
the ER and when I examined her foot, I noted several maggots eating away at the
dead flesh in her heel.
Friday night we all got together at the Netteburgs again for
a sweet time of prayer and worship.
Saturday morning at 4am we had an emergency C-section. I
came home afterwards, got an hour of sleep and was called in again for another
C-section. After we all cleaned up and ate some breakfast, we headed to my
favorite activity here at Bere – Bush Church! This was my second time at Bush
Church and I loved it just as much.
As soon as we pull up to a particular mango tree, 30-40 kids
come running. We lay out the mats and start singing “Animals, animals” in
Njaray. As we continue to sing songs such as “Father Abraham,” and “Making
Melodies,” more kids run over to our little church under the mango tree. Soon,
some women and teenage boys gather as well, in time to hear Dr. Olen tell
another Bible story. Last week he told the story of Noah while Dr. Danae and
their kids made the story come to life with felts. This time he recounts the
Tower of Babel while everyone listens intently. After the story, Dr. Danae asks
if anyone has memorized any of the Bible passages they were given a few weeks
ago. One young man gets up and in front of everyone recites all 19 Bible
passages. It had taken him only three weeks. His prize is a Njaray Bible, the
first Bible that village has received. And these Bible stories that the
Netteburgs have been faithfully telling them are the first Bible stories these
people have heard. They have never heard the stories of Daniel, Joseph, and
Adam and Eve before. They are thirsty and receptive.