6/22/11

Determined to have a better day than we had on Tuesday, we did.

We decided to go into the hospital in the afternoon and evening, rather than the morning and afternoon. There are so many students there during the day that it's hard to be legitimately helpful - it seems like we're just in the way half the time. But at 5:30, the hospital totally clears out. So we decided that's when we wanted to be there.

More dental clinic in the afternoon, and more Ugandans being outrageously stoic. One poor preteen, too old to scream like a child but too young to be anything but terrified, sat in the chair shaking uncontrollably, but not uttering a word. She couldn't anaestetize him, he was shaking so badly... when he came back later he'd calmed himself, and went through it with no complaint. Pretty crazy.

I went to the maternity ward for much of the evening with Anne Marie, and successfully learned a few things about obstetrics - how to determine where the fetus's head is, how it's oriented, how to do a vaginal exam and determine how dilated a woman's cervix is. It was really interesting, and really cool - the nurses in maternity are extremely helpful and knowledgeable, so I really liked that. Before I knew it it was 5:30, and the ward emptied. In fact, we found ourselves in the situation where we were the only people in the whole damn ward, with some ten or more laboring mothers. Catching one nursing student on her way out, we asked who was in charge... "You are!" Wait, what? "If we weren't here, what would happen if one of these mothers started delivering?" "They would scream for help, and probably someone would hear them." By now pretty freaked out, we started running around looking for someone, anyone qualified really, who would be there if one of these women started having a baby. We figured we could deliver a perfectly uncomplicated baby, but what if there was a hemmorhage? A tear? We weren't about to sucher one of these women back together, with no experience (and with no anaesthetic, as is the crazy policy of the maternity ward)! Luckily we found a nurse who came in with us, and normalcy was restored.

It was about now that yesterday's scenario began to replay itself. A woman was in obstructed labor. It was determined that she required a C-section. The surgeon on duty during the daytime was just leaving, and the nighttime duty surgeon was "on her way." For the entire time that we waited for her (well over an hour), I was increasingly nervous and angry. I couldn't beleive that a baby was stuck in this woman's birth canal, a medical emergency(!), and for two days in a row surgery was delayed to the point that disaster seemed inevitable. Finally the woman was carted to the operating theater, and the surgeon (after a painstakingly slow introduction to us and a generally unhurried air) began operating. The baby was removed - resuscitated - and after a few heart-wrenching minutes, began to breathe.

Anne Marie and I were really, really happy. At about 8:00 we left the hospital and grabbed some beers at a bar on main street. Sometimes, it seems, medicine works!