I continue to have some great experiences here in Ghana. Diseases of poverty are what I want some experience with and there is no substitute for seeing what is in the textbooks played out before your eyes. During rounds this morning there was a middle aged gentleman status post surgery from a perforated bowel as a result of complications from typhoid (enteric) fever. One source estimates that perforation happens in less than 10% of known typhoid fever cases. Our gentleman was status post surgery and doing okay in the male ward.
There is no ICU at this hospital at the present. So open abdominal surgeries have to go to the male or the female wards. This is obviously not ideal. I was asked to help setup the ICU (there is dedicated space), if I had time available. My schedule is jam packed so I don’t know if i will have time. I would love to be able to do that though because of my critical care background. I do have that administrative side!