Salima District Hospital

Friday we drove to Salima District - we stayed in Senga Bay (more on that later), the next morning we drove to the Salima District Hospital and met Peter Maseko. He started his call Thursday morning - he stayed at the hospital until Sunday morning, getting up all hours of the day and night to manage the hospital - he was 'the' person on call for everything nights and weekends. We made his morning post C-section rounds with him and then saw a young woman who was 36 weeks pregnant who came in with meningitis. She was actually sitting up drinking water, 36 hours after arrival and treatment. He was amazed. We had our portable sonogram (THANK YOU SONOSITE FOR THE LOANER!!), so we checked her baby right there at bedside. Soon a line started forming of the ladies who had come to 'ante natal' clinic. We checked several, with Peter interpreting for us. They were thrilled to see their baby's heart beat and head. Then we were called to the labor ward... a young woman had arrived from an outlying clinic with 'obstructed labor'. Peter decided she needed a C-section and asked us if we wanted to attend. Of course, we said YES! We suited up..... if you notice the pictures, the scrub dress I am wearing is literally falling apart on my body. I am glad I wasn't going to be touching a patient, because it offered virtually no protection. Actually, watching Peter get ready for surgery - the scrubs, then a plastic apron, then he scrubs in and puts on a sterile gown (which was in pretty good shape). The surgery was very much like here - and, on the other hand, very different. Only clinical officers and a couple of nurses, but the clinical officers really know their stuff! The anesthesia was a spinal, and the clinical officer had it in fast, she was numb very quickly, Peter had the baby out in less than 15 minutes from the time she got her spinal. She was nicely closed and done in less than an hour. She had a fine looking baby boy! After the surgery, we changed back and planned on returning to the maternity ward to do more sonograms. Peter was called to do several emergencies evacuations, so told us to go on without him. The line was long! And no one in the department spoke English! So, we entered them into the sonosite computer as Jane Doe... I think we ended up with 24 or 25 of them. I learned to point at the screen and say ntima (heart) and mutu (head) and chabwino (OK).. ending with bos amayi (you are done madam). It worked out pretty well! The ladies were patient with us, they were all smiles and hugs, and all seemed thrilled to see their babies! We even had a couple where we got good profile shots and pointed out nose and lips (just had to point, my chichewa doesn't go that far!). Jose and I took turns using the actual sonogram scanhead, the other of us doing the computer part. He has a real knack for finding the umbilical cord! We even found a set of twins - ha, and we couldn't tell her!! We finally finished at after 4 PM, a long day. Not as long as Peter's, as he was being called to another STAT C-section as we were leaving. We had hoped to return one day this week and do more sonograms, but Peter has meetings starting Wed for over a week. Hopefully we will get back. Just a note for those of you keeping up with the blog - if you remember the little boy with cerebral malaria that we saw the first visit to Salima hospital? The one with a blood glucose of 28 and in a coma? Peter finally found the nurse that had been there - she said shortly after we gave the glucose and then left, the boy woke up. He did have malaria, but ended up going home in 2 days! A miracle... helped along because Peter had a glucometer and could check his glucose.