A little story. . .

     First of all I'll tell you a little story which happened this morning.  We needed to go up the mountain to Granfour (about 10 min drive) to check on something for a patient.  So I hopped on the Gator with Jon.  Of course since the machine was empty otherwise, there were plenty of people asking for rides.  There was this one older lady that I left get on along with one younger lady and her baby.  Off we went.  We crossed the dry river bed and started up the incline when suddenly there was a little racket from the back.  I turned around, and to my horror what I saw was the underside of the Gator's bed.  It had voluntarily unlocked itself and unloaded our passengers onto the ground.  I really can't explain the feeling that went through me.  We quickly stopped and went to check them out.  They were all "ok", but the older lady was pretty banged up and shook up.  The young lady and baby seemed totally unharmed.  I was able to get the older lady to sit down on the side of the road.  Jon jumped on the Gator and took off back to the clinic for some bandages, wound cleanser, pain pills, and pain cream.  As we sat there a small crowd gathered to hear the story and offer their help or thoughts.  One lady had water so offered the shook-up, discarded passengers a drink.  Then she grabbed leaves from the side of the road and crushed them up, rubbing them on the injured areas.  Someone said, "What if it would have been on the very steep hill (Jack Rabbit as we call it)."  There was a gasp, and someone else said, "Don't even say that!"  (If it would have happened then, I hardly think we'd have been talking about minor injuries.  Praise the Lord it happened where it did!)  Jon soon came back.  I bandaged up a few wounds and gave her the pain pills and pain cream.  She was very grateful.  We then proceeded to remount our machine.  This time I told the lady that she should sit in the front, and I jumped in the back with the young lady and her baby--this time with the bed securely locked in place.  We made it without further incident to Granfour.  

Here are just a few shots of various cases we had this week.  

This elderly gentleman was carried in on a stretcher.  He was still very alert and with it, although very dehydrated.  When I asked what he had, he said, "I have weakness, dizziness, and gas, 3 sicknesses." and he repeated them!  He made us chuckle--quite elderly but still perky at heart.  

Here he is with his IV now running and Mis Katie giving him oral re-hydration solution to drink

Feeling rather perky

This is the preemie that I wrote about a little while ago whose mother seemed to be mentally handicapped.  He is gaining fairly well.  In the last two weeks, he gained 12 oz.--now a total of 4 lbs 1 oz.  

 Jevy and Sabrina are the friends from church we hiked to visit a few weeks back.  They are expecting their first baby, and one day this week Sabrina was carried in on a stretcher nearly unconscious.  We started checking vitals.  Her blood pressure was fine, but we found her sugar to be pretty low.  I think her problem was just hypoglycemia.  We gave her glucose tabs and oral re-hydration solution, and she was soon turning around.  Before I sent them off, I gave instruction about how a pregnant woman must eat enough for her AND the baby.  (She had only eaten plain bread that morning and a little tea.)

A happy couple