The clinic has been busy with three doctors, the Global Healing clinic saw just fewer than 350 patients in January. In the clinic we see a lot of common problems; ear infections, respiratory infections, parasites, infected bug bites and gastroenteritis. Lots of cavities, and we went through all the toothbrushes Dr. Gary brought down. Some more unusual cases for the clinic was a young girl with alopecia areata, and a rash that Dr. Gross thought might be typhoid, because nobody in the clinic had ever seen one like it, but after looking at typhoid rash pictures he decided it was probably pitynasis Rosita.
Last week was very intense in the hospital. Wednesday night, the hospital caught fire, the hospital sent everyone home in taxis. The women’s ward burned, nobody was hurt and everyone got out fine. Dr. Mario was in Tegucigalpa, and Dr. Gross, Dr. Lindsay and I didn’t find out about it until we arrived Thursday morning. They told us some of the patients had been transferred to the private hospital, Wood Medical Center. On our way out to go to the other hospital, there was a two month old baby girl on the bench in the lobby, breathing very heavy and the doctors both agreed that the baby should be admitted.
When we arrived at the private hospital none of the kids from the hospital were there, they had all gone home in taxis at two in the morning. We talked to the director of the hospital, Dr. Wood and told her about the baby that needed to be admitted. She told us she didn’t know if she would have any beds. We took a tour of the hospital, it is cleaner than the public hospital, but seems to have about the same technology and same staff as the public hospital. When we saw the Pediatric ward, we didn’t see a single child in the beds.
We came back to the hospital and Dr. Wood said they would clean up the hospital and the baby could stay here, so they got oxygen and a nebulizer and baby laid on the wooden bench in the lobby all morning. They took and X-Ray once the electricity came back on, and noticed she has a collapsed lung. Dr. Lindsay and Dr. Gross thought that she needed to be transferred to another hospital that has a CPAP machine. Global Healing offered to cover the cost of transportation for the baby to be transferred. The mother of the baby didn’t want to go. The baby is only two months old and has already been to Tegucigalpa where she was supposed to see a pediatric cardiologist, they were there for days, and never saw him and all they did was an EKG and sent her home with no more information. Meanwhile, the baby got into a bed at the public hospital. We were waiting for the husband to come to decide whether or not they would transfer the baby. Dr. Mario was calling to try to make arrangements in Tegucigalpa.
Friday, the mother did not want transport the baby. The baby was still in the same condition, the mother thought she was doing a little better though. We were getting a little upset because it seemed like nobody cared, there was no sense of urgency, everybody just wanted to wait until tomorrow to see. The previous week a baby died, she didn’t transfer and then she was too sick to transfer out. Another doctor, Guido, came in and explained to us that if the baby transferred to Tegucigalpa that she would have to go through the emergency room in order to be admitted to ICU. The baby really could be waiting in the Emergency Room for days trying to get in, and they don’t triage, it basically comes down to you need to know someone in order to get a bed in the hospital.
At least the explanation made us understand the mother telling us that ‘if her baby is going to die she wants her do die in Roatan.’ We were all pretty downhearted when we left the hospital on Friday, and it was Dr. Gross’ last day as well. He is a great asset to the clinic, I very much enjoyed working with him.
