The Hospital

Well...Amy has been sharing so many wonderful things, and I know she has more from today to share. But I thought I would add a little to the blog about my time in the hospital. African Inland Church (AIC) Kijabe Hospital is a mission hospital and a teaching hospital. All the doctors including the Kenyan interns and residents are Christians.
I was asked to manage a service of inpatient medical patients. Normally a service is managed by a "team" of doctors to include the attending staff, resident, intern and medical student. Since they are so "short" on doctors, I have my own service without any interns or residents. A very fine British medical student named Chris is assigned to work with me. He started the same day as me so we are figuring out the ins and outs of the hospital together. We have a nursing student assigned to translate for us every morning. Although the official language in Kenya is both English and Swahili, very few patients speak English.

It has been a challenging experience for me for two reasons. The supporting systems that we so depend on in America to care for patients, such as lab tests and radiology tests, are so limited. In addition the scope of diseases that I am caring for is very different.

Now about the hospital. There are two main wards; the men's and the women's. On each ward there are approximately 50 beds, but only four rooms or bays. The beds are so close to each other that it is hard to squeeze by to examine the patient. Patients are in the hall on gurneys. There is one restroom (Choo) for each ward. At the same time each morning the nurses bring buckets of water to each patient with a cloth. Everyone stands up next to their bed and gives themselves a bath with the cloth (if the patient can't stand up and family member is there to help bathe them). Sheets are quickly changed during that time. Breakfast is a piece of bread, a hard boiled egg and milk. There are no trays, the food is just placed on the bed or wherever there is space near the patient. Lunch is often soup brought in a large kennel and scooped into a bowl at the bedside.

Each patient is responsible for the charges they incur. Family members drive to Nairobi to buy medication such as antibiotics that the hospital does not have on formulary and brings that to the ward for us to administer. Once discharged, patients are not allowed to leave until their charges are paid, since once they leave they may never be seen again.

I have seen two oncology consults since I have been here. The first was a 12 year old girl who has a sarcoma on her thigh about the size of a football. The question from the surgeon to me was their anything that could be done to prevent an amputation. Unfortunately there is not. A surgery to perform and complete dis articulation from the hip down is planned for her in the near future. Another was a wonderful, Godly 44 year old man with recurrent lymphoma in his mouth/nose/sinus. He is being sent to Nairobi for salvage chemotherapy (which I do not believe they offer due to costs, etc.)

All medical lectures begin and end in prayer. I experience an amazing Staff Chapel service for all the hospital staff. God is living through these people, they have an understanding and trust in God I hope to have some day.

Blessings to all of you. More to come soon.

Mitch