Drama...

  The young man that broke into our house has been caught and is in jail. But that story can't come quite yet. First I need to tell you all how it came to be that he rode in our vehicle part of the way back to Oriani.
  Last week we had a young man carried into the clinic. His lower body was covered with a sheet but we could smell that he had wounds somewhere. This man fell out of a tree last October and broke his back. He was in the hospital in Port for a while but about six months ago the hospital he was at had some kind of drama about a policeman getting shot there and all patients who were able to leave were told to leave. He was brought back to his dad's house which is about a thirty minute drive away from the clinic. He is paralyzed from about his mid back down, has large pressure sores on both of his legs,   and hasn't had the care he needs. His mom is dead. From looking at his back I didn't think he would even be able to sit up. Anywhere he goes he has to be carried. If he had a wheelchair he couldn't even use it on the path leading to his house. It is much too narrow and uneven. Apparently the family has been paying someone quite a bit of money every eight days to come to their house and change this boys' dressings. The dressings that were on his wounds were pretty pathetic.

Lots of some kind of powder had been put in the wounds then a small amount of gauze then scotch tape all the way around his legs to keep the dressings in place.  This man is just skin and bones so I'm sure he wasn't getting proper nutrition, especially not enough protein for wounds to heal. The family had finally run out of money to pay this "nurse" or whatever they were so brought him to us. We wanted them to bring him back in a couple of days but just his dad came and said they were unable to get a machine to bring him that day and he is unable to come on a moto or mule, what should they do? We said they should just bring him the next day. That didn't work out either so we decided we would go to his house this time to do a dressing change. So Trevor, Mirlene, and I and Luanna (a girl who is here observing at the clinic for seven weeks prior to med school) got in the machine along with a local man who knew where this man lived. The road came pretty close to this man's house. We only had to walk a couple of minutes. We found him propped in a chair outside the house.  His dressings were very dirty and partly off. There were maggots crawling in the wounds and out from under the dressings. Flies were everywhere.
    By this time most everyone in the community knew who had broken into our house. Just the evening before he had been seen coming back up to Oriani so a warrant was written for his arrest. The man (Andres) who had come with us to tell us where to go had heard that this thief was in a small town close by so while we were changing dressings he went to look for the thief. We finished and had driven back through the market and were waiting in the machine only a few minutes when a big mob of people come up to the vehicle. After several phone calls and much hollering and discussion  Andres and this young man get in the vehicle and we take off. Trevor and Mirlene are in front and Luanna and I had gotten in the back. We decided whatever was gonna happen in that middle seat could happen without us. Several miles down the road we meet a moto (someone that was called to help) and one of those guys gets in on the other side. Then the real hollering starts! The young guy never denies he was the one to break in at our place but wants to know "Who saw me?" Several more miles down the road we meet another moto that flags us down. It is decided they will take this guy the rest of the way on moto so they all climb out. He tries to run then so is very quickly tied up. We decide they can handle the situation from here on so head back to the clinic where we have many patients waiting for us. Later that day the police come and get him and take him to jail. Is this whole thing over? We don't think so, not yet anyway... But it made for a very interesting day!