Liberia #21
There is good news! As I was talking to Audrey this morning on Skype, she looked up Ebola and Liberia. Apparently the news this last week from the health minister, was that there are only 5 confirmed cases of Ebola currently in the country. A few months ago, there were around 300 new cases, in a week or maybe more. So that is encouraging.
I rounded quickly this morning in hopes of going to church, as it is Saturday. We have 10 patients currently. It is nice to have a little reprieve. Rounds took about 40 min. It is amazing how fast things can go when I do not have to document in a computer. And when there are so few labs and other things to follow up on, that speeds it up as well.
At midnight last night, I’m called to see a Lebanese man in a car outside. He has been short of breath for three days. He got a pacemaker somewhere outside Liberia a couple years ago. I felt his pulse with my gloved hand, irregular. I listened to his heart and lungs. It was difficult to tell what the sounds were from all his groaning, that apparently he couldn’t stop. As we have no EKG or chest x-ray. I recommended that they go to another hospital. Maybe ELWA or the catholic hospital. They were hesitant, but eventually I convinced them that he was better served elsewhere. The other man was pleased and put up his hand for a fist bump- seemed a little strange, but we bumped fists, his and my glove. They drove away in their Subaru legacy.
Sabbath afternoon, I came “home” from church and took a nap. In the evening Dr. Seton and I went to meet dr. John Frankhauser from the ELWA hospital for supper at the Sajj restaurant. He has been here for a little more than a year and had a leadership roll in starting the first ETU (Ebola treatment unit) at the ELWA hospital. This is the same hospital that Kent Brantley, Rick Saccra, and Nancy ? were from when they contracted Ebola. It was nice to sit and talk with him. Apparently they have a 40-bed hospital and besides Cooper Hospital are the only other hospital fully functional. He and one other doc, swap call every other night to take care of patients. Apparently they do many C-sections for obstructed labor, while on call. The Sajj was lovely, I had a vegetarian pizza, and it tasted great! That is the same place I got a falafel sandwich last time.
Later in the evening we were invited to Peter’s place for a barbeque. He runs an NGO that manages and equips all the burial teams in Liberia, 60 in number. The compound was lovely. A series of apartment buildings, with guards. A flower garden out front, with a huge pool overlooking the ocean. There were about 15 people there, all from different NGO’s. Apparently Peters NGO is turning down donations, because they have so much money. Wish that Cooper Hospital had that problem. Then maybe we could get some reasonable blood work, get an EKG, and maybe have a functional X-ray! Hard to diagnose things with only ultrasound, and suspicion! I had a nice time talking to different people and finding out about their NGO’s and what they were doing here. Got back late and hit the sack, after my bucket bath.