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Feb 16
2008
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Some PatientsPosted by juliebriggs in Untagged |
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So this week in the clinic has been hard work and a bit overwheleming I suppose, I guess God was just breaking me in gently the first few weeks. Ive been treating (well trying to) patients whose pain is so preventable and if they had proper treatment when something happened it could of been prevented. Part of it is because of the health care here, its pretty awful and the other part is because of money. The people just don't have enough money to pay to go and see the doctor then they don't, so they get worse and worse and I'm sure alot of people die due to preventable or very curable things. I'll tell you about a few of them...
I've had about 4 stroke patients and they are old strokes like 3 years ago. So the treatment for a stroke in Haiti is high blood pressure tablets then stay in bed until it gets better. I'm actually amazed at how much recovery some of my patients have with no treatment, yet treatment at home is physiotherapy and it makes me think if they had any treatment how much better they would be and how much more function they would have. Then what happend is because they don't have the use of one arm and can't walk very well, they can't work and therefore don't have any money to support themselves and feed themselves. And as there is no such thing as a pension in Haiti so they often have to rely on other members of their family to support them, to wash and dress them and feed them which is alot of pressure when they are trying to support the rest of their family who all live in the same house. So that is hard, and also its just hard work because at home you would often have 2 physio's working with a patient and an assisstant where as here is just me!!
Another patient we saw yesterday one of the Doctors called me into because he had a sore leg and couldn't walk. Haitian people are very difficult to get a history from so he had told us he had fallen 5 years ago, that was all. However we didn't really believe he'd been walking like that that long. He was in alot of pain and couldn't lie down. When I look at his leg, his thigh was about twice the size of the other one and it was really hard and had two scars on it, I did not know what was going on so I got Dr Gavin...after a lot of questioning (like 15 mins) we finally got the whole story. He had a fever in November and got an injection in his hip in a hospital in town since then his leg has started to get bi and he has found walking more and more difficult and they never came to see anyone before because they didn't have the money. The boy was about 17 and was with his brother who is in his twenties and both parents are dead so they are looking after themselves. Dr Gavin looked and questioned and diagnosed the boy with osteomyelitis which is basically a bone infection most likely caused by the injection he was given at the other hospital probably because it wasn't sterlie. Now his thigh bone is about 3 times the size of the other one and completely full of infection. He needs an X-ray, so we sent him on to get one but they don't have the money so Dr Gavin is going to take him on Monday. Then treatment is antibiotics maybe for a year and just wait and see if they work. You can see how both money and the health system here are causing so many problems.
We also had a couple of people this week wih broken bones, and they had been injured 2 weeks previously. They are walking around in so much pain with a broken arm simply because they don't have the money to go to a doctor to see what the problem is.
My eyes have really been opened this week to the poverty and need here this week. I have known before now it was poor but when you are working with people like that each day you really see a little glimpse of what life is like for them and how they just live from one day to the next trying to support themselves and their families each day.
Just continue to pray for my work in the clinic, for wisdom to know how to treat I do feel a bit out of my depth sometimes. And just for Haiti as a whole that it will be a country for God. For the government who basically does nothing for the people pray that God will change that, He asks us in the bible to pray for our leaders and rulers so I ask you to pray for Haiti's.
I've had about 4 stroke patients and they are old strokes like 3 years ago. So the treatment for a stroke in Haiti is high blood pressure tablets then stay in bed until it gets better. I'm actually amazed at how much recovery some of my patients have with no treatment, yet treatment at home is physiotherapy and it makes me think if they had any treatment how much better they would be and how much more function they would have. Then what happend is because they don't have the use of one arm and can't walk very well, they can't work and therefore don't have any money to support themselves and feed themselves. And as there is no such thing as a pension in Haiti so they often have to rely on other members of their family to support them, to wash and dress them and feed them which is alot of pressure when they are trying to support the rest of their family who all live in the same house. So that is hard, and also its just hard work because at home you would often have 2 physio's working with a patient and an assisstant where as here is just me!!
Another patient we saw yesterday one of the Doctors called me into because he had a sore leg and couldn't walk. Haitian people are very difficult to get a history from so he had told us he had fallen 5 years ago, that was all. However we didn't really believe he'd been walking like that that long. He was in alot of pain and couldn't lie down. When I look at his leg, his thigh was about twice the size of the other one and it was really hard and had two scars on it, I did not know what was going on so I got Dr Gavin...after a lot of questioning (like 15 mins) we finally got the whole story. He had a fever in November and got an injection in his hip in a hospital in town since then his leg has started to get bi and he has found walking more and more difficult and they never came to see anyone before because they didn't have the money. The boy was about 17 and was with his brother who is in his twenties and both parents are dead so they are looking after themselves. Dr Gavin looked and questioned and diagnosed the boy with osteomyelitis which is basically a bone infection most likely caused by the injection he was given at the other hospital probably because it wasn't sterlie. Now his thigh bone is about 3 times the size of the other one and completely full of infection. He needs an X-ray, so we sent him on to get one but they don't have the money so Dr Gavin is going to take him on Monday. Then treatment is antibiotics maybe for a year and just wait and see if they work. You can see how both money and the health system here are causing so many problems.
We also had a couple of people this week wih broken bones, and they had been injured 2 weeks previously. They are walking around in so much pain with a broken arm simply because they don't have the money to go to a doctor to see what the problem is.
My eyes have really been opened this week to the poverty and need here this week. I have known before now it was poor but when you are working with people like that each day you really see a little glimpse of what life is like for them and how they just live from one day to the next trying to support themselves and their families each day.
Just continue to pray for my work in the clinic, for wisdom to know how to treat I do feel a bit out of my depth sometimes. And just for Haiti as a whole that it will be a country for God. For the government who basically does nothing for the people pray that God will change that, He asks us in the bible to pray for our leaders and rulers so I ask you to pray for Haiti's.
