What a busy morning!
Bright and early, Anita and I were up and about, drinking our coffee, and preparing to go to clinic to dismiss a cholera patient we had allowed to stay in our hospital room over night. When we initially kept the patient, she did not have a confirmed case of cholera. However, close to evening we discovered that indeed, she did have it. We choose to let her stay the night even though we are not prepared currently for such cases. It could potentially have meant her death to send her away.
So the next morning after that affirmation, Anita and I were up and ready to send our cholera patient on the road to another hospital and bleach down the clinic and room as fast as we could before others arrived at around 8:00am.
Before we got out the door of our apartment, we got a message that there is a woman in labor at the clinic waiting for us! Oh no! We ran over there and quickly got her into our clean examination/consultation room. Our cholera patient was quickly sent off. The hospital room she stayed in, and everything else she may have touched was thoroughly bleached, as were our shoes, etc.
We no sooner got her sent on the way, when baby was coming! Fast! It was a great delivery, and baby was fine - despite the fact that the cord was wrapped around his neck two times!! Anita always does a wonderful job at midwifery and God is definitely good!! Below are two pictures of the nurses and mom with baby.
The nurses and baby
Mama and baby
Notice the hole on the heel
Later that same morning, a boy came in with an abscess on the bottom of his foot. His foot was very sore obviously. In order to let pus and infection out, I had to cut through tough callous on his heel with a scalpel. That was the first time I'd seen an abscess on the bottom of a foot like that!
~Mis Breanna