Our Friday got off to a rough start to say the least. Edwin promptly arrived and off we flew! We made the traffic light right turn at the busy road which takes us to Muhimbili and we all cheered...but as fast as we were zooming little did we know trouble lied ahead.
All of a sudden as the breeze was cooling our faces, we heard a hiss sound from the Bajaji. Ohhh no! Edwin turned around to look at the right tire and sadly we had a flat tire. The bajaji was tilting toward the side I was sitting on and Kristina had to keep holding me in on all the turns! We were just pulling into Muhumbili hospital and Edwin insisted on driving us to the drop off round-about at Jengo lawatoto (Home of the Children)...such a nice man. We arrived safely and soundly...Hopefully Edwin was able to fix the flat tire and had lots of good business today.
Today we went to Grand Rounds, Tanzania style. One of the 3rd year pediatric residents presented a case of a young girl with a mediastinal mass and impressive cervical lymphadenopathy. The room was packed with medical students, interns, residents, consultants (general pediatricians), and specialists. When we introduced ourselves everyone giggled and laughed....were they laughing at the muzungus??? Nope. Apparently we just sat in the intern section! The grand rounds was a clinical presentation of our patient who had Hodgkin's lymphoma and the resident was heavily critiqued on everything from her sentence structure to her physicial exam skills. It was intense!
After grand rounds, we returned to the ward to check on a sick patient in respiratory distress. When we returned, we saw him take his last breath. We removed his 02, closed his eyes, and said goodbye. Just his aunt was with him and she had to call his parents who live 10 hours away. It was very sad. We still don't know what he had and may never know.
I spent the day in the outpatient clinic and it was very busy. Patients quietly wait in the lobby outside and all have numbers. One comes in and we signal for the second patient to come in at the same time. So basically you are seeing two patients at once....HIPAA does not exist. The highlight of the clinic was when a child who was 2 years off therapy for Wilm's tumor showed up with his file (chart) and large lumps around his jaw...MUMPS!!! yikes! We ushered him to the now empty lobby and got him taken care of without further exposure to the immunocompromised children.
Tomorrow Kristina and I are off on a bike tour through local parts of Dar-es-Salaam then relaxing by a beautiful beach in the afternoon!
All of a sudden as the breeze was cooling our faces, we heard a hiss sound from the Bajaji. Ohhh no! Edwin turned around to look at the right tire and sadly we had a flat tire. The bajaji was tilting toward the side I was sitting on and Kristina had to keep holding me in on all the turns! We were just pulling into Muhumbili hospital and Edwin insisted on driving us to the drop off round-about at Jengo lawatoto (Home of the Children)...such a nice man. We arrived safely and soundly...Hopefully Edwin was able to fix the flat tire and had lots of good business today.
Today we went to Grand Rounds, Tanzania style. One of the 3rd year pediatric residents presented a case of a young girl with a mediastinal mass and impressive cervical lymphadenopathy. The room was packed with medical students, interns, residents, consultants (general pediatricians), and specialists. When we introduced ourselves everyone giggled and laughed....were they laughing at the muzungus??? Nope. Apparently we just sat in the intern section! The grand rounds was a clinical presentation of our patient who had Hodgkin's lymphoma and the resident was heavily critiqued on everything from her sentence structure to her physicial exam skills. It was intense!
After grand rounds, we returned to the ward to check on a sick patient in respiratory distress. When we returned, we saw him take his last breath. We removed his 02, closed his eyes, and said goodbye. Just his aunt was with him and she had to call his parents who live 10 hours away. It was very sad. We still don't know what he had and may never know.
I spent the day in the outpatient clinic and it was very busy. Patients quietly wait in the lobby outside and all have numbers. One comes in and we signal for the second patient to come in at the same time. So basically you are seeing two patients at once....HIPAA does not exist. The highlight of the clinic was when a child who was 2 years off therapy for Wilm's tumor showed up with his file (chart) and large lumps around his jaw...MUMPS!!! yikes! We ushered him to the now empty lobby and got him taken care of without further exposure to the immunocompromised children.
Tomorrow Kristina and I are off on a bike tour through local parts of Dar-es-Salaam then relaxing by a beautiful beach in the afternoon!
Have a wonderful time!! (More photos...?)
ReplyDelete--cmr