Sucess!!

A lot of my non-medical friends are complaining about the graphic nature of my pictures... so for today I have a different kind of post: 

Meet Ali- a kid of about 16:

He came to us several weeks ago with a femur fracture. He was in traction for a bit, then Dr. Scott did a perfect sign-nail repair. 

Ali speaks only arabic, and only understands a few words of French. The first time I met him, it was to start him on physical therapy after the surgery. His cousin was translating for me, and when I said we were going to do some exercises, his answer was a cathegoric "no way!" 

He clearly didn't know me very well... 

Of course, I didn't take no for an answer, and over the course of another couple of weeks, we exercised every day, and improved the range of motion of his knee, which at first was only about 30 degrees. 

He did NOT get infected, his wound healed nicely, and he was discharged. 

Today he came for his weekly check-up, still using crutches. 

That's his current range of motion. He's pretty good at exercising on his own, and I have no doubt he will continue doing it and regain the few degrees still missing...

So today, I had the pleasure of pronouncing him completely healthy and telling him he had no need to come back to the hospital, or to use his crutches again. 

I admit, it was weird actually saying to him "get up and walk!" 

But he did. A little wobbly at first, but gaining confidence with each stride. 

SUCCESS EXISTS!!! And it tastes good! 

:) 

Little black children and big nasara people

To say there are cultural differences between Chad and everywhere else I have ever lived is a gross understatement. 

One of the things I learned on my first afternoon here was that most children are TERRIFIED of white people. The parents tell them that if they're bad, the white people will come get them and drink their blood... so they see us coming and literally start screaming. 

This was sad for me, because I love kids, and usually, kids love me too. 

When they start getting older, they start losing fear, probably because they realize we're not really going to drink their blood. 

Anyway, so there's this boy, who is about 10 or 11. The first day I saw him, he looked at me with big, scared eyes, answered my questions with yes or no, and seemed anxious for me to leave. He had a femur fracture as you can clearly see in the x-ray below: 

On Sunday, I asked his name, and he told me: Taira. 

Monday morning comes along, I walked into the room, looked at him and said "Bonjour Taira!" and man, oh man! His face lit up like a Christmas tree. He smiled so big, I almost cried. So I went and talked to him, then his mom came and talked to me too, and asked me questions about his operation, which would be on Tuesday. 

Yesterday I got to spend the entire day in the OR. Dr. Scott plated and fixed his femur, and it looked amazing!! 

However, like I mentioned earlier, the patients are awake during surgery. There's a drape covering the surgical area, but they can still see the Anesthetist moving around, injecting things into their arms, etc. They can also hear everything we say. The kid was terrified. He was shaking with fear... So I went there and started talking to him, held his hand, told him it would be ok, just tried to calm him down...

He now knows my name, smiles everytime I'm around, and his mom also really likes me. He has two younger sisters, and although they're still keeping a safe distance, they have started to smile as well. I will still win them over! :)

Yesterday was a great day... I will share more stories and photos later... :) now it's time for bed! 

P.S.: For those of you who were wondering, my amputee lady is still alive. She developped a fever last night, so we started her on malaria treatment (they all have it, as they don't have mosquito nets or repellent) and she was better this morning. Her wound is still infected, but we're keeping the abcess open and it actually looks ok... 

Please keep her, Taira and all the other patients in your prayers... And again, if you can help, please do!!! http://www.ahiglobal.org/main/donate-now/

(Don't forget to specify that it's for "Centre Chirurgical de Moundou, Chad).