Kristi Goes to Ghana

My first two days in Saboba…

February 3

This morning I met a few more important people of the community I had yet to meet:  the Reagent and the Chief of Saboba.  After that, I headed to the hospital and started rounds with some of the other medical professionals while Dr. Jean ran some documents over to someone.  Rounding without Dr. Jean is not very educational for me because there are so many tribal languages that no one speaks English, so I had no idea what was going on.  When Dr. Jean is there, she has people translating to English, so then I know at least partially what is going on.  Dr. Jean arrived and we continued to round for a bit, but then she had to attend the Annual Performance Review for the District.

I went along with her for the first portion of the meeting which was very interesting.  I learned a lot about the different bodies that play a role in the health care system/public health in Ghana.  Saboba Medical Centre is the only hospital in the entire district which serves over 60,000 people, many of whom obviously have transportation issues in trying to reach the hospital.

Bob picked me up early from the meeting to go to “Market Days” with Augie (one of his housekeepers).  Market Days was so packed!  Every six days, people come in from all around to sell items that you either cannot normally get in Saboba or are very expensive.  There were people selling used clothes, cloth, all kinds of food, spices, shoes, garbage cans, cooking pots, toiletries… basically everything you need!  I got a few pictures of the crowds and all of the stands.

After that, I went back to the hospital to hang around and see how everything works.  Dr. Jean was still in the meeting (it lasted all day) and so I followed around a couple of the sisters (nurses) and asked questions, helped give medications/injections and tried to talk with some of the patients.  I really enjoyed it and feel like I am starting to understand how the system here works.  It is definitely different than the computerized HER that I am used to, but it is sufficient.  Unfortunately, none of the kids understand English, so I can’t communicate with them well.  Some of the kids are scared of me, I think because my skin is so much lighter; I actually made one child cry yesterday just by being in the room with him!  

February 2

Today was my first official day in Saboba.  Saboba is a town of about 8,000 people.  There are mostly dirt roads and people everywhere walking and on bikes, motorbikes and a few “lories’- SUV/truck type vehicles. 

I spent the early part of the morning meeting some of the important people of the community and hospital system.  I then met up with Dr. Jean in the hospital for rounds.

The hospital is divided into two main sections:  children/men and women/birthing.  In addition there is a “Theatre”(OR)  portion in between the two main wards.  The hospital has cement floors and many beds in a large room for the children and the men are in smaller areas with 2-3 beds per section.  The women/birthing ward is similar to the children’s ward with many beds in one large room.

After we finished rounding, we went to the OR for surgeries.  Before starting surgeries, Dr. Jean saw patients in what seemed to me like a Surgical Clinic.  Doing post-op follow ups on patients and screening new patients for possible surgeries. 

In the OR this afternoon, we took a very large mass (12cm x 5cm) off the dorsum of a 16 year old boy’s right hand.  Since there is no pathology or way to determine what the mass was, we are unsure of his prognosis.  Dr. Jean tried to cut into it, and it was very firm and cartilage/bone like- suggesting a more malignant diagnosis.  However, we will just have to wait and see if he develops any further problems.  The next two surgeries were hernia repairs, which went smoothly.  After that we went back to the men’s ward to check on a particularly agitated patient who may have meningitis.  He had improved slightly from the morning, but still has a long way to come.

By the time we made it back to the house for dinner, I was famished!  I guess I wasn’t thinking when I left this morning, because I didn’t take any food/snacks, and we didn’t have time for a lunch break!  Don’t worry- I already have snacks in my bag for tomorrow!