For me, last week has been quite amazing. A one month old baby was
brought in a seriously emaciated state. He had been having treatment at another
centre for an infection in one testicle, but clearly had a strangulated hernia.
The nurses at the other centre had persisted with antibiotic treatment for about
3 weeks before referring the baby to us in Zidim. The only chance for survival
would be surgery, but his condition was so poor that the chances of surviving
surgery seemed slim. The family decided they couldn’t afford the operation (£30,
which is a huge sum in local terms) even on “credit”, so left the hospital. I
found this really difficult: for us £30 is not a huge sum and I found myself
wondering if I should have offered to pay. I was warned against that as it would
only open flood gates. I suspect the family’s decision was right – I don’t think
there was any hope for this baby.
Wednesday, I was assigned to “assist” Abdou with a laparotomy (operation
to explore the abdomen). When he handed me the scalpel to start the incision, I
felt instant panic, but had no option other than to proceed. In fact, he is an
excellent tutor and guided me safely, taking over when I was clearly out of my
depth. After that I was sitting in on consultations with Sylvia when we were
called to see a casualty with a gunshot wound. There he was, sitting with a
bandage wrapped round his left hand. He proceeded very calmly to remove it,
revealing a charred fragment of bone which was all that remained of his left
thumb! When asked what had happened, he explained he had been shooting birds
with a “fusil Africain”. This _expression_ explained all as no one seemed at all
surprised. Having seen the thinness of African metal work, I can easily
understand that the gun must just have blown apart in his hands. There was no
option other than to amputate what was left of his thumb. I expected this would
be arranged later in the day in theatre, but in fact one of the nurses dealt
with it in the “minor surgery” room!
That same night another casualty turned up, the victim of a brawl. His
assailant had finished up stabbing him in the face just in front of his right
ear. Sylvia and her nurses had great difficulty stopping the bleeding from a
severed artery (for those of you who are technical, I think it must have been
his temporal artery), but managed it eventually. He is left deaf in his right
ear and with the lower half of his face paralysed. At present, he is also having
to cope with a postoperative infection. Just hope he makes it. His assailant has
been carted off to jail in Maroua, I think.
I have been doing a bit more consulting with the help of nurses to
translate and keep me right on procedures. They’re very patient and helpful, but
it will be some time yet before I feel at all confident.
I have now started formal French lessons, daily for an hour starting at
4pm. My tutor is Oomarou, a brother
of the Lamido. I’m not sure how useful they’re going to be, but I am enjoying
them and Oomarou is very encouraging. Later, he will be my tutor for
Fulfude.
