Zimba

This is an update from the week we spent at Zimba Mission Hospital...just a little late.

Day one: Wednesday. Kelsey and I spent the day in the pharmacy talking drugs with Sinyangwe, the Bemba pharmacist. We learned a ton about the medicines used here, but in the afternoon we started talking heavier stuff. It started off being about how Zambians perceive Americans and vice versa, then we started talking about politics, then marriage, and then spiritual gifts. We ended up having Bible study with him for the next three days...We planned on going to church with him, but because of the loss of electricity and water, we had to miss out on that...bummer.

Day two: Thursday. I was in the OPD (out patient department) with two other students. We took vitals on 90+ people. It was pretty crazy. There was one guy in particular who I saw that broke my heart...his story comes in to play later. The big event from OPD was a lady who came in by wheelchair. He family wheels her up to the door and it was pretty clear that she needed immediate medical attention. As we’re getting her vitals, she went rigid and her eyes rolled back in her head. We immediately thought seizure so we start to get her to the ground but then notice that she stopped breathing and has no pulse. People are gathering around like crazy (the bystander effect) and we had to start yelling to get people out of the way. Taylor started doing compressions. The lady started breathing again and had a pulse. Turns out she had miscarried and had been bleeding for two weeks. We saw them remove the RPOC (remaining products of conception) and by that afternoon she was stable…so crazy. It was so scary. The only reason I did not have an emotional breakdown was that I saw her alive.

Day three: I was in female ward rounding with the doctor. He taught us a lot about disease processes. Did you know that you can get TB in places other than the lungs? One patient had spinal TB and another had it around her heart. We did some blood draws and saw a paracentesis (draining fluid from a woman’s abdomen).

The afternoon was when things got crazy. Kelsey, Mikala, and I went to the pharmacy to hang out with Sinyangwe again, but he wasn’t there so we went to female ward. Almost immediately this woman was brought in who was in respiratory distress and was drenched in sweat. We came to find out that she had drunk pesticide in order to commit suicide. Then her family walked her 7k to the hospital. I thought her heart was going to stop, but the nurse Clever was amazing and got an IV going quickly and gave her activated charcoal and atropine. It was super tense there for a while and all we could do was pray that she would vomit. The doctor came in and said that in Lusaka he would see patients come in every day who had attempted suicide with poison, but in Zimba it was more like once a month. He said that they’re often HIV patients, rape victims, etc. What a horrible thing to have to see – but she pulled through. Between that and this next story I was on the verge of tears the whole afternoon. Later we ran into this patient’s family on their way back home and we got to talk to them more – what amazing people. It was such a good feeling to be able to laugh with them after all of that. I hope that they can provide encouragement to this young girl who wanted to end her life. She is a new mother. Rough stuff.

Remember the man from OPD on Thursday? Well they decided to admit him on Friday. This may not seem like as intense of a story as the previous two, but for some reason, this man stole my heart. I took his temperature and he was shaking so hard that the thermometer barely stayed in his armpit. His temp was 39.7 Centigrade. I’m not exactly sure what that converts to in Farenheit, but I think it’s around 103 or more. He had such a huge smile on his face, but I had to hold back tears when I touched him because all I could think about was how whatever infection was raging inside of his body could kill him because his defenses are gone. I hate HIV. I hate seeing people who have wasted into a bag of bones. I hate telling people that only 1% of the U.S. population has it. I hate standing there feeling helpless when these people are dying and nothing can be done. All I can do is squeeze a hand or rub a back. Death and dying sucks, but seeing people slowly die from HIV/AIDs is pretty close to hell. I really struggled with this man. I can only pray that his defenses will be enough to kick this infection, but will the next one be the one to kill him?

It was a great week but like the others, so tough and so challenging. How is it possible that I'll be home in less than 3 weeks?!

Brucie