helen weld public health

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Up Country. . .

I went up to Kabala in the NW near the Guinea border with one of the OR nurses, about 10 hours of driving, to assess 5 women for surgery who had been "collected" by a man named Peacemaker. Four of them got to go and the other one had to wait due to her case being more complex. She was devastated to be left behind. They are such lovely women and just very amazing to rescue them and deliver them to WAFF where they will have the surgery next week.

Today, I visited the PCMH, the public maternity hospital. Wow. No oxygen, no running water, no blood etc. etc., in fact no oxygen at any hospital in SL. There were two women in the labor rooms, one had just delivered a stillbirth and the other had an obstructed labor and was waiting for a section (could have been another few hours), a VVF inevitable. Very sad.

Departing tomorrow for ‘up country’. We will head to Bo and the other eastern districts with a medical team from the USA doing mobile clinics. We’ll return to Freetown next Thursday. Have no clue about any internet access in that part of the country, so it might be a while till you hear from me. I’m lucky to have the chance to see so much of the country.

Freetown is an abysmal place...polluted and utterly congested with traffic all the time. Tomorrow is the monthly clean up day in Freetown. No traffic allowed until midday unless you have police clearance, so we probably won't depart until early PM. Freetown makes La Paz seem like bucolic Yungaburra!

Love, Helen