On Wednesday, which is the day our Haitian nurse has classes with the pregnant women, we had a mother come in to the clinic in labor. She was only six months along but the baby was coming. We suppose that for some reason the baby had died, maybe even the previous day. This mother has had three pregnancies without problems so we really don't know what happened. As far as we could tell the mother hadn't taken anything to abort the baby. Not long after she arrived her water broke and we could see the baby's hand but then she wasn't advancing with the labor. We tried giving her the medications we had on hand but it was soon obvious that she would need to go down the mountain to a hospital for a c-section. Meanwhile, the husband had went back home to see if he could borrow some money in case they did need to go down. We got the ambulance and her ready and about that time he came back. He hadn't been able to get the amount of money we usually ask to take someone down ( which pays for gas) but had some so they loaded up and headed down to a hospital.
Meanwhile, Todd's had some visitors here and the men and boys decided to go investigate the cave near here. Keith has talked to a member of the family that owns the land the cave is on and they were ok with us going there. Someone, somewhere, heard there were white people in the cave and then the story gets rather fuzzy. Some say they are afraid if people go in the cave the devil will no longer come there. Supposedly there has been some devil worship there in the past. Seems like they would be glad if the devil stayed away. Others think there are diamonds in the cave and that we were stealing them. Anyway, that whole deal has caused a huge schmozzle in the whole community. There has been talk of going to court ( although others say there was nothing done out of place) and having to pay a lot of money to the family who owns the ground. There is a magistrate involved and who knows who all else. All kinds of stories are going around about the white people tying up Haitian children and dragging them into the cave with them etc... We very well know that isn't true. The "chefs" ( similar to sheriffs) were waiting when they came up out of the cave and one of them fired a gun into the air, then they took some rocks that Chase had in his backpack and one of their ropes. That night yet the rocks ( pieces of stalactites) were taken somewhere to be checked to see if they had any diamonds in them. We are trying to lie low and see what will get worked out. Just an interesting tidbit that has caused a lot of talk.
Last week I was able to tell the man who had had the ax wound on his foot that he doesn't need to come every other day any more, his foot is almost all healed up. There is nothing left to pack. It hasn't totally formed a scar yet but doesn't need a dressing anymore. He is happy.
Another patient we had last week was a child who is one year old but only weighs about thirteen pounds. We have been giving his mom food for him for several weeks now and he never seems to consistently gain weight. He has been treated several times for ear infection too and last week both ears had another nasty infection. Plus he was very dehydrated and had diarrhea and vomiting. I tried several times to start an IV and finally got one in his head. It lasted the whole time we needed it that day. We gave him some fluid and antibiotics then let him rest a while and did it again so he had two doses of IV antibiotics before we took the IV out and let him go home. He had kept down all the pedialyte we had given him too so hopefully he is on the mend. He came back again on Friday for a check up and one ear was definitely better so... We gave more oral antibiotics to see if we can clear up the other ear and a second dose of de-wormer. If he still can't gain weight we will have to send him to a hospital to be checked for a bigger, underlying problem.
Sallie left on Monday for Wisconsin. Cam went with her to visit for three weeks and work on the farm so it seems quiet around here....
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