A Regular Medicine Day
Thankfully a run of the mill day! We had a little boy who cut off the tip of his finger with a saw (no plastic surge eons to argue with just good old fashion cleaning and dressing), then a drunk who fell over a bush..... face meets pavement, face looses, depression and teen pregnancy counseling. Sounds like Rochester:)
We also had a child with a psuedoseizure. Now this one is kind of interesting. A rebellious teenager who gets in a knife fight with one of the workers daughters, gets kicked off the plantation, travels 3 hours to grandma's but grandma won't have her so she returns to her mom's house (which is the back two rooms of the clinic we have been cleaning), tells her mom if she doesn't take her back she's going to kill her and oh by the way I'm not going to school either. She's 14. So why the pseudo seizure? Well the plantation owner said that the only way she could stay was if she worked on the grounds picking up garbage and she needed to apologize to all those she had threatened and attacked. So she through a fake seizure and a pretty good one at that, because she didn't want to clean. Everyone came running to get us yelling and screaming....quite dramatic. When we arrived she stopped shaking and just acted passed out. So we checked her over to be sure she wasn't really sick, she was still not responding so we got a big needle and syringe, said we would have to give her a shot to wake her up and she squinted open her eyes to see the needle and miraculously came to.
As for the little ones, we are concerned about our inability to keep them healthy. Their immune system is shot because of malnutrition and chronic parasites, complicated by the fact that we can't keep them warm and dry and someone keeps stealing their shoes (they sell them in town for cash). We have put up curtains, given numerous hygiene lectures, and played the role of Russian prison guard checking on the staff at each watch but the minute we turn our backs they go back to the same old routine. We can't change the building they are housed in and getting the kitchen to keep the flies off the food is purely insurmountable. We have a few cards left in our hands to play so I'll keep you posted.....
We also had a child with a psuedoseizure. Now this one is kind of interesting. A rebellious teenager who gets in a knife fight with one of the workers daughters, gets kicked off the plantation, travels 3 hours to grandma's but grandma won't have her so she returns to her mom's house (which is the back two rooms of the clinic we have been cleaning), tells her mom if she doesn't take her back she's going to kill her and oh by the way I'm not going to school either. She's 14. So why the pseudo seizure? Well the plantation owner said that the only way she could stay was if she worked on the grounds picking up garbage and she needed to apologize to all those she had threatened and attacked. So she through a fake seizure and a pretty good one at that, because she didn't want to clean. Everyone came running to get us yelling and screaming....quite dramatic. When we arrived she stopped shaking and just acted passed out. So we checked her over to be sure she wasn't really sick, she was still not responding so we got a big needle and syringe, said we would have to give her a shot to wake her up and she squinted open her eyes to see the needle and miraculously came to.
As for the little ones, we are concerned about our inability to keep them healthy. Their immune system is shot because of malnutrition and chronic parasites, complicated by the fact that we can't keep them warm and dry and someone keeps stealing their shoes (they sell them in town for cash). We have put up curtains, given numerous hygiene lectures, and played the role of Russian prison guard checking on the staff at each watch but the minute we turn our backs they go back to the same old routine. We can't change the building they are housed in and getting the kitchen to keep the flies off the food is purely insurmountable. We have a few cards left in our hands to play so I'll keep you posted.....
posted by Dr.Bridgette at 10:40 AM
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