First Day Off

Today is my first day off, so we went on a nice long hike in the beautiful Kenyan countryside. We were a hit among the locals, who always stop what they are doing to come and say hi to the strange beings passing through. We saw lots of great birds like crowned cranes, but around here the only big animals are cows, donkeys, and dogs. Many people are out during the day, picking tea and tending to their banana trees and other crops.

Although the kids are loving the constant outdoor play (no room in our apartment), they are still not adjusting too well to the constant hordes of people that they don’t know. Everyone wants to meet them, so they come bursting up to the kids in full force which the kids don’t like. We hope it will get better, but realize that this is a huge change for them.

In the hospital things are still busy. I have been working on the general medical ward this last week. Like before when we were here, almost half are AIDS related diseases. The good thing now, though, is that there are accessible anti-AIDS drugs. That fact changes a lot. Last visit here, I dreaded the frequent conversation with mothers that went something like this.

“Unfortunately, the reason your baby is going to die is that she has AIDS.”
“Well, how did she get AIDS?”
“From you.”
“From me? I don’t have any symptoms. How did I get it?”
“From your husband.”
“How did he get it.”
“From another woman. You will also need to have your other children checked.”

Nothing like telling an already beaten down woman that she and her whole family are about to be wiped out by a slow, miserable disease that her family and friends will shun her for. So with the free anti-AIDS drugs from the U.S. and other places, this conversation no longer has quite the sting. I am so thankful for that.

But patients still die daily from things that are easily preventable. There is a baby in the nursery with neonatal tetanus, with a still uncertain outcome. One night I was called up because a pregnant lady pushed all day at another hospital until her uterus ruptured. The baby died, but thankfully the mother survived after a difficult uterine repair. Last night a 14 year old girl came in after battling typhoid fever for 4 weeks. By the time she came in, the surgeon said there were about 2 gallons of pus in her abdomen from a perforation in the bowel. She simply came in too late and died this afternoon. The baby that had a bad home delivery that we “saved” in my last blog entry, has long since past away. Their was a 4 year old girl who ate wild mushrooms at home and didn’t show up for about 6 hours. By then we could not pump the mushrooms out of her stomach. We had her on the ventilator overnight, but we removed it unsuccessfully the following morning. Etcetera.


But there are more good stories than bad. We see so many patients that come in looking like they are going to die, but somehow rebound and walk out alive. It is a good reward. Most of those are things like pneumonias, malnutrition, meningitis, and TB.



It is not hopeless. It is worth our effort.