Easter

We had a great Easter on campus complete with a honey baked ham, thanks to Megan’s willingness to pack a ham in her luggage and bring it halfway around the world!  The meal was really a special treat to the missionaries here in Nalerigu.  We spent Sunday in Nakpanduri hiking the escarpment and sharing a meal with John and Denise and older missionary couple that have been in Ghana since the 60’s.  I am very proud of myself because I drove the entire 45 minutes to Nakpanduri in a manual truck avoiding rocks, pot holes, motos, trucks, and all of the other road hazards that can be found in Ghana!

 

Hiking at the escarpment with Megan and Julia Welch

Megan hugging a balbo tree

Case of the Week

This man showed up in my clinic.  He was from Togo which is the country to the east of Ghana.  He has these masses only on his face.  No other part of his body is affected.  He said that about fifteen years earlier he had two masses on his forehead removed and then after that all of these other masses have been growing.  There are clearly places that the masses ulcers on them that look like skin cancers, but I have no idea what the underlying process is.  I, unfortunately, had to tell him there was nothing that I could do to help him. 

Trauma Team to the BMC

Yesterday was Ghana’s Independence Day, which meant no outpatient clinic and a day to rest and recuperate.  Or at least that is what I had planned.  It all changed late in the afternoon when a tribal war broke out north of Nalerigu.  These two tribes have been warring since the early 80’s over a little patch of land.  There will be long times of peace and then the tribes will find some reason to start fighting again. 

The gun shots started rolling into the hospital in the late afternoon and kept me there most of the night.  As soon as I would patch up one guy and think I was done, another would roll in the door.  Eight people in all were brought to BMC with gunshot wounds.  The worst was shot right to left through the front of his face, I have never seen an injury like that before.  Everyone was extremely lucky.  Ghanians’ have no fat on their bodies.  Two men had bullets travel through the 1 cm of sub-q fat on their abdomens.  Amazing the bullets did not enter their abdomens.  Another bullet went through and through the skin of a man’s chest, not entering the chest at all.  The rest were extremity injuries, which I just stabilized overnight until I could refer them to the orthopedic hospital a few hours away in the morning. 

To make matters worse a truck load of soldiers that was actually running from the fighting (because they said the fighting was too intense) overturned in a ditch.  Nine soldiers were admitted for injuries from being thrown from the back of the truck.  It was a blessing that none of them were very injured.  I was able to tuck them all into the ward for observation. 

In the end, it will be a Independence Day I will not likely ever forget anytime soon!