More burns...

On Saturday we went to Port to get Larry and Sharolyn.  Thank you to everyone who sent things with them. We had great fun unpacking everything. Zack had ordered some parts for his moto that he had shipped to Larry and I had requested some chocolate and a few other things. Saturday morning before we went to the airport we stopped in at two hospitals so I could see what they were like. The first one we stopped at was a maternity hospital and a baby had just been born. The second one we stopped at Keith told the guard we needed to get in to see someone and he let us in. I think it probably helped  that he could converse well in creole.  We went up to the second floor to the maternity ward and went in to the room where babies are born, c-section or otherwise.  A baby had just been born here also but the placenta was not yet delivered. We stood around a while and talked then the nurse said since it had been 30 minutes and the placenta hadn't come she would have to do something about it. The patient had no anesthesia and was lying there bleeding quite a bit. The nurse gave the lady a shot of oxytocin but still no progress. Of course there was no air conditioning but the one window where the frame wasn't broken was open. The nurse proceeded to do a manual d & c while we watched. It took a few minutes but the patient didn't make a sound. She did make a few faces and wiggled a little but took it all very well. So now the nurse had a big bloody mess that she had to sort through to see if it was all intact. She took it over to the sink and started sorting through. All at once I started to feel quite warm and rested my arm and head on Sallie's shoulder.  Then things started to get black and I felt like I might throw up. In the background I heard Sallie saying " Keith, I might need some help here." He thought she was joking so didn't really do anything right away. Then he saw my face and knew I was about to faint so got a chair quick for me to sit down.  One of the nurses went to get some water for my face. I personally wanted some cold water and she did the best she could but it was still quite warm. I didn't jump at the chance to bathe my face so she did... I was starting to recover so Sallie and Keith started laughing. It was pretty funny but I wasn't quite to the point where I could laugh yet. I still felt quite a lot like puking! It's only the second time I remember almost fainting. I really don't know what happened, I have heard lots of theories but don't know which one is right. It was probably a combo of a bunch of things. I thought it was a very valuable experience though as who knows, I may have to use that technique myself some time. I still want to go to more hospitals here though because both of these places were not too bad. They had decent equipment and they used gloves etc...
    The man whose foot got cut with an ax has been coming back regularly for dressing changes. A couple of days ago I took the stitches out and there was a place about an inch and a half long that opened up again. When we sewed it up we couldn't get the blood from the artery to stop with pressure so we finally had to just stitch it closed and hope for the best. The first several dressing changes it was still oozing quite a bit. Now I could see several dark old blood clots. The guy was kind of worried, was this really bad? I finally told him it wasn't bad, it didn't look infected right now, I just needed to get those old blood clots out or it would get infected. He seemed to understand and calmed down a little. I really had to squeeze his foot to get it all cleaned out and it hurt him pretty bad. Then I had to get in there with a q-tip yet to make sure I had gotten it all. Now we have been packing the wound every other day and it looks good so far. It doesn't look infected, just needs to heal from the inside out now. This guy lives quite a ways away. They said if you had a donkey that walks fast it would take two hours for him to get home. Now he has been driving moto here so that is better. He just puts a big sock on his foot and off he goes.
    About a week ago a man came to the house with his little boy who is not quite one year old. He had pulled a pot of coffee off of the fire and it spilled on him. He had blisters and peeling skin on his shoulder, the top of his arm, the side of his face, his ear, and the back of his head.

They had brought him right away without putting anything on the burns so that was good. I had to clean the coffee grounds and charcoal off then put cream on and bandage him up. He came back the first several days every day like we asked him to but now we haven't seen him for three days so we're not sure what the deal is. He does live a ways away and the first time his dad hired someone to bring him on moto. Then I think the next two times he walked here. We will probably see more burns in the next little while as sometimes the mothers have to work in the gardens and they don't usually take their children with them. Sometimes they are just left in the house by themselves so...