I had high hopes for the number of patients we could see this week with three doctors in clinic, but with Dr. Jackie’s return to the hospital, there was a smaller patient pool for us. Things will pick up next week, however, as Charles will be gone and the Cuban pediatrician is returning to Cuba. Despite the relatively low number of patients we saw this week (range was from 8-20 each day), we did manage to see some pretty interesting cases and I was witness to my first public health miracle here on the island.
Right before I arrived in Roatan a baby was born in the Roatan Hospital with hyodrocephalus. The mother had little prenatal care and the baby was taken to the pediatric neurosurgery ward in the big hospital in Tegucigalpa days after birth. On Monday after work, one of the social services doctors (they are sort-of like residents in the US) came in with the mother who had returned to Roatan after being told her baby would need brain surgery to insert a shunt in Tegucigalpa but that she would need to find/purchase the actual shunt. We sent out e-mails to Global Healing and Karina spoke with neurosurgeons she knew from NYU to try to see if there was a way we could get a shunt donated from the US and shipped down quickly. We didn’t have to wait long, as we found out just two days later that Dr. Patrick — who spends 6 months of the year here in Roatan working with Peggy — would be coming down Saturday and had obtained a shunt for us. We will bring the shunt to the Mom on Monday (if not earlier) and she will head immediately for Tegucigalpa. The surgery is currently scheduled for Tuesday. It was incredible to be part of a team that was able to act so fast and effectively to help this woman and her baby out.
Another interesting case involved a 10 year old who Karina admitted on Friday to rule out septic arthritis. The girl had severe pain in her hip, accompanied by a positive urine test and a high temperature. She was unhappy about being admitted but the potential consequences of septic arthritis (i.e. losing hip function) necessitated the admit. I’m sure we will hear more about her case when we return to work on Monday.
This week I will also be following up with two patients who I am trying to get to Choluteca in October for free plastic surgery. One is in need of a cleft palate surgery and another needs external ear reconstruction. It will be quite an enterprise organizing this as Choluteca is two days away from Roatan and the organization providing the surgeries requires photos and HIV and TB tests from each potential patient, nonetheless, as Peggy said, it’s much easier than paying for a surgery (which these patients are unable to do) or traveling all the way to the United States to have a surgery done.
What else have I been up to? Rom, Karina, Suzanne, and I dove on Tuesday. I’m officially certified! We also discovered the licuados place across from HB Warren. The banana is amazing. I don’t recommend the Italian restaurant in West End, Karina and I ate there last night and are both feeling sick today.
In office news, after the new desk Charles purchased arrived on Monday we re-arranged the clinic and now there is a ton more room for intake. This means I no longer have to scribble notes on files on top of the printer or computer. Additionally, the air conditioner seems to have been fixed in the hospital. Apparently this is a huge issue for Global Healing and something they have been trying to make a priority for some time, although it seems to me to be less important than the fact that we don’t have running water in the clinic/some necessary meds. It is hard to be concerned about fixing the AC when you are looking for a shunt that may save a baby’s life.
Anyway, as usual, it’s hard to believe how time has flown by! I officially messed up my timing of filing my AMCAS so that my Inbox has been flooded with secondaries all week that I know I am not going to be able to keep up with (not exactly what I want/plan on doing my last week and a half here). Sadly, Charles left today for San Francisco for his board review conference and I won’t be here when he gets back. The turnover here is incredible. Hopefully I can make the most of the next week before Mike arrives and I pass everything I’ve learned on to him.
