Casualty

 I changed departments at the hospital this week. I had to say goodbye to the wards and theatre and all the little burns kids who had surprised me so much with their strength, and take myself off to casualty. This is little Ester below. I still can't believe she'd come up and hug me after what we'd put her through in theatre. Any child at home would have run the other way at at the sight of me! She is also a good lesson (as are most of the other kids on the wards) about why your mum always used to tell you not to play with matches. Ester was alone while she was playing with them and so no one was around to help her when her clothes caught alight.

 So now I am in casualty and seeing pain on a whole other level all together. As I left to come write this, a man was carried in with a broken L femur, R hip, R humerus AND L clavicle. He already looked like a bag of bones (he was painfully thin) but now sadly, it was a bag of broken bones. The road accidents here are brutal.

That guy was carried in on a stretcher, but if you are lucky enough not to be hurt that bad, you get to wait in the chaotic corridor of casualty. Never a dull moment here!

I quickly snapped a few pictures while we were quiet this morning to give you an idea of what its like. This is the intern I've attached myself to. It was his first day of 'being a doctor' on Monday, having just graduated in December. I think it is so sweet how he keeps referring to textbooks and lecturers. At least he's not panicking and running out the door, which is pretty much what I think I would have done if I was faced with a Tanzanian casualty department on my first day!

This is the consultation area/waste disposal.

This is the sanitation area.

I think the shower curtains are supposed to provide privacy as well as cheer the place up a bit. They don't do either of these things though.

Especially when you see the blood stains on them.

And then this is the resuscitation trolley.

I hope no one needs airway management in a hurry!

Till next time x