The boy with the lacerated lip...

The other night I was going into the generator room to do a few things when one of the ladies called out from Steve's front porch. They said that I should get my camera.

It was getting dark, so I couldn't really see what was going on up there on the porch. However, not asking any questions, I went into the house to get the camera. Proceeding to the porch at Steve's house, I found Anita, Thea, and Shana inspecting a little boy...

The little boy had a bad cut on his upper lip, apparently from a fall.

So, after some deliberation, they decided to stitch it up!

Anita agreed to do the stitching, so they got right to it!

The little guy was very brave...

He hardly flinched, and didn't even cry.

He seemed very interested in the camera... :)

Finally the last stitches went in. In all, he had 5 in his upper lip!

Though he hardly flinched at all durning the entire procedure, he still looked relieved to be done!

All finished! It all turned out very well. They went on their way joyfully :)

A normal day at the Clinic!

People wait their turn outside, sitting on the wooden benches.

As they are called inside, the patients have their
blood pressure and weight charted.

It's very VERY hard work... :)
Fre Direk takes a snooze towards the end of the day.

This dear lady asked to have her picture taken.
She was just so thrilled when she saw it :)

Inside one of the exam rooms,
Thea gives a consultation.

After hearing the patient's issues, she checks her over
and prescribes medicine.

The baby that couldn't breathe...

On Friday night there was another baby born at clinic (seems like the season for babies around here!)

Unfortunately it wasn't breathing once it was born, so Steve, Thea, and Anita had to do CPR (compressions and ventilations by bag valve maske with oxygen) for a while. The heart beat was good enough then that we were able to stop compressions and only do ventilations. The baby was hooked up to an oxygen saturation and heart rate monitor. It was finally decided that they should take it to Ti Guave, because we were almost out of oxygen. They headed out around 4:30am Saturday morning and made it to the hospital around six. Anita continued ventilations the whole way down the trail. Once they reached the hospital the baby was admitted immediately. We have not heard how it's doing so far...

Here's the "life support" team in action.
Steve operated the respirator and Thea supported the baby.

Amazed--is he actually breathing?

The stats are much improved--oxygen saturation at 98% and heart rate at 140
(that' normal for a newborn).

Now just blow-by oxygen and Thea is monitoring heart and lung sounds.

We gave him a break with assisted ventilations from time to time.

By-standers, assistants when needed! :-)

Dear little guy!

A view outside the clinic.
There were some men out there praying and singing most of the time.

Breathing on his own a little.

A weary nurse.

Mama getting to hold her son--first child.

Update on a Patient!

This is the lady we took out to T-Goave a little over 2 weeks ago for a C-section because of complications during her labor. Click here to see the blog post for that trip.

We had the opportunity to bring her back to Aleg on Sunday and snapped a few pictures! She was so happy, and it's so rewarding to see healthy Mama and baby!

A cut above the rest...

Yesterday (after the clinic was closed) a lady and man came over to Steve's house, needing some medical attention. The lady had a very bad cut on her shin that was about 3 inches across and pretty deep. They claimed that she had fallen onto a rock...

Ugh... looked like it hurt pretty bad!

Thea took the job of stitching it closed.
After cleaning it out, she began the tedious work.

She started by numbing the area with local anesthesia.

Then she went to work!
After a few stitches, she noticed something was wrong with her needle...
The lady's skin was so thick and leathery, the needle had bent!!

After about 30 minutes of painstaking work, it was all finished up!
Good job Thea...

After closing the wound up, the general area needed to be cleaned and
have a bandage put over it.

New baby!

Two babies have been born recently here at the clinic!

The first was a little girl, and the one this morning was a little boy! :)

Just a note to those who send baby packages...
Most babies are small here, so premie outfits are just perfect,
as opposed to the outfit on this little girl :) :)

Ready for the big world out there? :)

And now the little guy from this morning...

Moto tumble...

Good morning everyone!

Over the weekend a troubled moto driver arrived at our gate, bearing an elderly lady on the back and calling for us to open the gate for him.

His distress?

Apparently on his way to his destination he lost control of his moto and crashed, throwing his passenger (the elderly lady) off; she was then promptly (supposedly) run over by another moto!

We opened up the gate and let them in. They set the lady down on the porch so they could examine her injuries and assess the situation. Obviously the most important thing was to make sure there were no broken bones and no internal injuries and then go from there...

She was groaning and letting out cries of pain as Michael examined her. After checking for the aforementioned conditions, he determined that she was probably ok. She was just very upset and shook-up!

So, to help her calm down and feel better, they took her down to the clinic and gave her a shot for pain and some medicine for the next few days... After that she seemed to be doing just fine, so they set her on the moto and they were on their way!

Pictures below!

While we were at clinic a little boy came in needing his toe re-bandaged, so Thea took upon herself the responsibility of taking care of it :)