20101001 by Tom

This is going to be the last of the notes in the blog made in Mpongwe this year.

We know this has been a fantastic time filled to the brim with interesting things. A few of our inner thoughts. have displayed themselves unwillingly and for that we apologise. You cannot go through life without noticing things and there are a lot of differences between Africa and Söderköping This is extremely clear to everybody from Sweden that have been to Africa. Afew are regarded as good and some are regarded as bad or not so good. We had an interesting discussion with mr Musaka about eating caterpillars. He regarded some as a delicatessen but I can hardly think of eating one. The conclusion is that Zambia and Sweden are as unlike as the fact that the sun in Zambia is in the north but in Sweden in the south.

The morning murmur was as usual and the round frustrating as usual. There was a lot of important tests and other procedures not done and the nurses student that was my aide was not even slightly sorry. She was only carrying the papers. In the afternoon II found out that she had not noted any of my orders and they were not executed. We had some very dehydrated children that needed extra care and she could not be everywhere. I tried to persuade two parents to allow us to set a feeding-tube in their extremely dehydrated daughter. They did not allow us. The child had started giving away some urin which is the first sin that the rehydration is taking effect. Without the feeding-tube her chances of surviving are minimal, we told the parents. The paraplegic boy with the pressure sores have got a little fever and I am dying to do a bacteriologic culture from his wounds.

Maria had blown her head when she found out that our garden boys had equipped themselves with Swedish operating dresses. We additionally found out that a multimillion dentist chair with all possible fittings, was standing under the blue sky and dust without any protection. We contacted the donors and our coordinator and the hospital officials. A lot of people moved the dentists chair and a lot of other things down to the hospital and indoors. When pushed they react.

Late at night the Swedish doctor that is to succeed me, arrived. She had had troubles in customs because her baggage was lost. We, Maria and Tom, served a nice dinner and Anna Karin went to bed early.

We had an interesting and constructive discussion with Dennis from the Workshop. We decided to put our last “give away” money in a project to restore the old OPD into a childrens OPD and ART counselling room. It will be possible to have a room especially done for children and to separate the grown-ups and the children waiting in the OPD. One problem is that not a word of mutual understanding and economics are written down.

At the morning mumbles Friday I told the people there about the Childrens OPD and we all heard Becky talk about heart failure. A very fascinating subject that gave cause for a couple of questions from the audience. I made a short speech and bade goodbye and thenk you for te weeks that have gone. I sincerely hope that the cooperation with Sweden will continue even if it has to be otherwise.

The ward is presumably given to Rick as from Saturday so I tried to write in a reasonably discernable way. The same troubles exists and I guess that Rick will have to fight the same fights as I have done. Nobody is actually dying but there are a few that will if nothing is done.

I want to thank everybody that have used their valuable time to read this blog. Thank you all!

20100929 by tom

This is written on Wednesday after the morning round. It was one of the most frustrating experiences in my medical life. I had a dresser named mrs Mwunda, the oldest and presumably the most experienced of dressers. She was all the time looking through her papers making notes and talking to the other staff, and was not listening to me at all. She had no clue as to why no tests ordered were collected and still lesser taken to the lab for processing. One little patient had been in the ward for two full days completely unnecessary because a simple dipslide urin routine test was not done. I cannot get into my mind that the staff is not at all interested in the patients will or well-being. If they are they hide it well. I have been wondering if there is something in the attitude towards the sick human being tat I have missed completely. If the staff, as it seems, are only interested in the salary they have because they are hired, we have a gigantic problem to overcome , if we aim at getting good care to Zambia. It is a question of the mind not of skill. In this the rotary doctors can play a role. We only stay a short time and if people get annoyed with us it is of no significance. A few Swedish nurses here could work wonders.
On Monday not very much happened as there was an awful lot of patient referred to the ward. Quit a few are dehydrated, partly because of the unusually hot weather. Some of them required a drip and those the staff executed. Someone must have once ordered i.v. therapy and told everyone that if they did not do as ordered the bad eye would be on them for ever. A lot of other things ordered were not done, except giving antibiotics because of fever. Very often up to three different broad-spectrum antibiotics, one quite often given i.v. As the OPD is not open on Sundays except for acute cases the C.O. must have worked very hard as I believe there must have been quite a crowd waiting to get treatment. Then he was wanted on the ward for reassessing patients as the staff did not think the Swedish doctor is totally reliable.
Tuesday was the day of the Scandinavian Party. Maria spent the day making food and arranging flowers for the table. The party was a success. Tuesday Musaka and sister Erna were GOH Guests of Honour, and the two Swedish engineers, and the two English doctors completed the party. Unfortunately mrs Musaka did not come nor any of the Musaka kids. The food was consumed anyhow and the chatting was intense. Sometimes a bit wild I think with the Musaka ears. After the two GOH had left the rest of the party sat down in the “parlour” to drink beer or whisky, and talk about chimpanzees and other interesting subjects.

A last note

This is going to be the last of the notes in the blog made in Mpongwe this year.
We know this has been a fantastic time filled to the brim with interesting things. A few of our inner thoughts. have displayed themselves unwillingly and for that we apologise. You cannot go through life without noticing things and there are a lot of differences between Africa and Söderköping This is extremely clear to everybody from Sweden that have been to Africa. Afew are regarded as good and some are regarded as bad or not so good. We had an interesting discussion with mr Musaka about eating caterpillars. He regarded some as a delicatessen but I can hardly think of eating one. The conclusion is that Zambia and Sweden are as unlike as the fact that the sun in Zambia is in the north but in Sweden in the south.
The morning murmur was as usual and the round frustrating as usual. There was a lot of important tests and other procedures not done and the nurses student that was my aide was not even slightly sorry. She was only carrying the papers. In the afternoon II found out that she had not noted any of my orders and they were not executed. We had some very dehydrated children that needed extra care and she could not be everywhere. I tried to persuade two parents to allow us to set a feeding-tube in their extremely dehydrated daughter. They did not allow us. The child had started giving away some urin which is the first sin that the rehydration is taking effect. Without the feeding-tube her chances of surviving are minimal, we told the parents. The paraplegic boy with the pressure sores have got a little fever and I am dying to do a bacteriologic culture from his wounds.
Maria had blown her head when she found out that our garden boys had equipped themselves with Swedish operating dresses. We additionally found out that a multimillion dentist chair with all possible fittings, was standing under the blue sky and dust without any protection. We contacted the donors and our coordinator and the hospital officials. A lot of people moved the dentists chair and a lot of other things down to the hospital and indoors. When pushed they react.
Late at night the Swedish doctor that is to succeed me, arrived. She had had troubles in customs because her baggage was lost. We, Maria and Tom, served a nice dinner and Anna Karin went to bed early.
We had an interesting and constructive discussion with Dennis from the Workshop. We decided to put our last “give away” money in a project to restore the old OPD into a childrens OPD and ART counselling room. It will be possible to have a room especially done for children and to separate the grown-ups and the children waiting in the OPD. One problem is that not a word of mutual understanding and economics are written down.
At the morning mumbles Friday I told the people there about the Childrens OPD and we all heard Becky talk about heart failure. A very fascinating subject that gave cause for a couple of questions from the audience. I made a short speech and bade goodbye and thenk you for te weeks that have gone. I sincerely hope that the cooperation with Sweden will continue even if it has to be otherwise.
The ward is presumably given to Rick as from Saturday so I tried to write in a reasonably discernable way. The same troubles exists and I guess that Rick will have to fight the same fights as I have done. Nobody is actually dying but there are a few that will if nothing is done.
I want to thank everybody that have used their valuable time to read this blog. Thank you all!