It has been a real privilege for me to get stuck into the work at the hospital over the past 5 weeks. I’ve been really enjoying the new role, and am starting to feel at home in the hospital.
Currently my main areas of responsibility are the maternity ward, paediatrics wards (acute medical and malnutrition) and male medical patients. These ward rounds usually take up much of my day, but are always quite interesting, and a great opportunity to get to know our nursing staff and students. Apart from ward rounds, I also often see people referred from our outpatients department, get to head into theatre to observe/assist when possible and share the on-call with the other 3 senior medical staff.
An interesting development for me here has been my increasing love of paediatrics. I’ve always loved children, and have done quite a bit of paediatric work in both the ED and a general practice at Redcliffe. However I haven’t really done much inpatient paediatrics. Very quickly the paediatrics wards here have become my favourites, and I find myself looking forward to the rounds there.
Unfortunately the work in paeds is probably also the hardest on the bad days. Certifying the deaths of children is the worst thing that I have had to do in my medical career. The tragedy of these situations is overwhelming at times, and my heart aches for the families of these dear little ones. Certainly a stark reminder of the immense need here.
I feel very blessed at the moment to have a fantastic paediatrician from the US visiting Mukinge for the month. Chuck has worked here many times over the past 10 years, and I’m greatly appreciating the opportunity to learn from him.
I was going through my inbox the other day and came across the first e-mail I received from the senior doctor here at Mukinge. I had been asking David (yes, there’s 2 Dr David’s here) what sort of work he would like me to do. His request was “jack of all trades works well”.
I’m certainly not in that league yet (I’d probably settle for “jack of a trade”), but it is an indication of the immense variety of the hospital work. Grand rounds last week was the perfect illustration of this point. We started on the paediatric ward and saw a young girl who had been having seizures pretty well non-stop for 2 days, and a young boy who had an ischaemic thumb after a snake bite. From paeds we went to the maternity ward and saw a mum who had come in that morning with a significant PPH (bleeding following birth) after delivering at home alone. Her blood pressure on arrival was 40/0 (normal is about 120/80!)
Next stop was the male medical ward where we saw 2 men with huge cancers on their legs and a young man with a neurological problem that none of us was able to figure out (I’ve referred him to the neurosurgical department in Lusaka – about 8 hours drive away). We then finished on the TB ward where we saw an older lady who had just been diagnosed with leprosy.
As a young doctor, it’s an absolute privilege to be working alongside the medical staff here (the real “jacks of all trades”). I greatly appreciate their input into my medical training and aspire to be half the docs they are.
Well, that’s a brief overview of what’s been happening on my end for the past month and a bit. Work here is vast and challenging. It’s also a powerful reminder of the great importance of the gospel message. As doctors we strive to make people well. Sometimes we even “save” lives. However the reality is that in the grand scheme of things, everyone is going to die. Even those we save will die another day. Which makes the great message of hope found in Jesus all the more important.
Dave
Zeke, Mary, Toby & Dave - Outside Mukinge Hospital
