I was able to put my suturing skills to use. We had a sweet boy, around 7 years old, come in. He had a one inch laceration on his left upper scalp. He had been running and fell down. Ouch! I prayed for the peace of the Lord and then I proceeded to gather the suturing supplies. My sisters love to sew so I guess this is my contribution to sewing, haha! He will get the sutures out in 7 days or so. In the USA a wound like this would likely have been stapled. I mentioned this to the workers here and clearly this was not something that they have to offer. But the sutures will do nicely.
Public health is the second component of my diploma that I am here to complete. Clearly, it is a huge undertaking considering the lack of resources available to the people of Ghana. We have had some very severely ill children. These little ones are very sick and starting an IV on a sick, dehydrated, (often malaria) child is no easy task and today it was one after the other. We had some successes and some failures. The option of a central line isn’t available here and scalp IVs are not the norm either so we just have to let the children rest and try again but time is of the essence. Please pray for these little ones that we will succeed and get the treatment that they need.
Another public health issue is the complications from untreated typhoid/enteric fever. They do not have vaccination programs to prevent typhoid. The worst complication has happened twice in the last few days….that of typhoid bacteria caused intestinal perforations. This is very serious and we took this second guy to surgery today. He had five separate perforations. I was so thankful for my critical care background at a time like this. Currently there is no critical care unit here in Wenchi and this man was critical. In my short time here I have been part of three laparotomies. Wenchi Methodist hospital is the only hospital available for a very large area.
I am impressed with these surgeons! Almost all doctors in Ghana do surgery like this, that is amazing to me. Quite different than the western medical system.
So back to the public health piece I am referring to. We need to do community education regarding the use of permethrin permeated mosquito nets for people. If these could be distributed to families in Ghana, we could prevent mosquito borne illness like malaria and protect little children (who sometimes die from this disease). We need to do community education regarding typhoid fever and how to prevent it (not cross contaminating food and water with feces that have the typhoid bacteria in it). Same goes for cholera and other diseases of poverty here and in other developing nations. Public health is huge and that is the bigger nut to crack. Sorry to go on and on about this but that is why I am here, Diploma in International Medicine (treatment) and Public Health (prevention).
Pray please for these dear people! That is ultimately what they need. Only God can step into this huge challenge and bring hope and healing. If Ebola came to Ghana it would be extremely serious. Praying that it would not come. I do get to do my presentation to these people on Ebola and it will be good for them to have and it will be very good for me to “imprint it on my mind” by teaching it to others.
Oh, one more thing, the nursing students were back today and again tomorrow. It is so great to get to be here and teach them.