Life, Death and Inspections….

I know it has been an extremely long time since my last entry but so much has happened. Please bear with me because I may jump around here and there so the series of events won’t be in chronological order but you’ll still be able to read what has happened in the past two weeks.

I guess I should begin with the hardest thing to deal with this week which was the loss of life of a one year old baby girl. She arrived to us after being sick for a while with pneumonia, she aspirated (Milk went into the lung instead of the stomach) and stopped breathing. The father presented her to American soldiers and they flew her from her home town to us. When she arrived to us she was extremely ill. We worked on her for hours trying to get lines into her to hydrate her but to no avail. We didn’t eat lunch or take breaks that day to be constantly by her side. I left my shift that night with heaviness in the pit of my stomach knowing that she would not make it through the night. I came in the next morning and found out that she was taken to CT for a head scan that evening where they found out she was brain dead. Life support was withdrawn and within a half hour she passed. My heart broke seeing such a beautiful baby’s life wither into nothing but I knew coming here that things happen and I just have to keep going.

A day later we had a patient, whom I thought previously, was not going to make it, wake up and pull his own breathing tube out. He gave us quite the scare with a series of events but in the end I guess he knew what was best for him. He was quite the character, laughing and talking even though we didn’t understand a word he was saying. One morning, he wanted to get from the chair to the bed and asked for assistance. I helped him with this transition and after settling in he told me, through a translator that he appreciated my help and that may God bless me with many sons. I had to laugh. When he finally left our ICU he literally had his hands in the air yelling,”WOO HOO!” That day put a smile on my face. Unfortunately that smile didn’t last long.

We’ve had many traumas come in since that patient. The traumas all ranged from Afghan nationals to American soldiers. Some died and some lived. The most grotesque of all the traumas I took part in, was an Afghan who got into a motor vehicle accident and got scalped. I reported to the ER and because this gentleman was not intubated, I really had no job but to help out with whatever they needed assistance with. My job was to hold pressure on this guys scalp against his skull to prevent further bleeding. There was blood EVERYWHERE! I have pictures that were taken from bystanders but I am afraid it may be too much for you so if you wish to see them e-mail me privately.

This finally brings us to this week, it’s only Tuesday but so much has gone on that it seems as if it is 7 days instead of 3 days. I came into work and as you all know from newspapers, some American soldiers got injured in a bombing close by. I don’t think I can legally get into details on the whole situation but I will say that some passed away and those that survived are now somewhere in route back home. I also had one last trauma come in and unfortunately it was another baby. This time, it was an 8 month old boy with severe lower extremity burns. The parents claim that hot water was splashed on his legs but the burns revealed that the story told to us by the guardians is not the true story. This baby had severe burns beginning on his bottom all the way down to his feet. The guardians were informed that this child needed to go to surgery immediately or he would get septic (infection) and die. They unfortunately, to my dismay, refused the surgery (which is free to them) and decided they just wanted to go home. There is no doubt in my mind that this poor baby, who also had several other infections ranging from ears to lungs, will not survive the month. We were all, again, heartbroken. One of our Docs even cried because of the situation and how heart breaking our world can be in countries such as this one. Again, life goes on and we do our best but we can’t force our help to people that are unwilling to accept it, no matter how badly we want it.

FINALLY, the weekends with a harsh infection control inspection. Quite frankly I feel that an inspection, such as this one, is ridiculous in a desert environment no matter how “state of the art” the hospital. We have a fairly new hospital and it has quite a few of the amenities that US hospitals have BUT we still have limited resources and supplies. Dirt/dust is everywhere just from outside conditions. Supplies are hard to acquire so we can’t constantly change things for the hell of it on a daily basis on the same patient and we sure as hell don’t have the housekeeping personnel that is offered in the US. Crazy as it may seem, they went through with the inspection and we find out at the end of the week how well, or badly, we did. Because of this inspection and all the traumas (I didn’t write about all of them for lack of time and energy) everyone was in rare form. EVERYONE was in a bad mood, snapping at each other and trying to get things done. As a result of all the stress, I had an argument with a physician about my priorities as an RT, getting ready for the traumas and his priorities of the upcoming inspection and passing it for his area.

It was a stressful two weeks… Hopefully the upcoming days will brings happier times and less sadness and stress. The inspection is over, but the traumas will continue to come. Until my next entry I wish you all good night, I love you guys and hope to see you soon.

Sandy