It has been a good while since I last posted any sort of update...so I'm at a loss to where I should even begin! I figured a good place to start would be to explain a little more about the actual work I am involved in. Here in our hospital on the ship, we have 4 wards that are up-and-running and 1 ward that has been set-up as an overflow ward but is not currently utilized. Here is the breakdown of each ward:
Ward A: Orthopedic Surgery and Plastic Surgery. Most surgeons come for a few weeks or even a few months at a time. So when orthopedic surgeons are here, Ward A will have mostly orthopedic patients, and when plastic surgeons are here, the ward will mostly have plastic patients.
Ward B: Women's Health/VVF Surgery. This ward mostly has patients that are here for a VVF (vesicovaginal fistula) repair. They also have some other patients receiving other kinds of gynecological surgeries.
Ward C: Overflow ward.
Ward D: Maxillofacial Surgery. This ward houses patients who are having any kind of facial surgeries- NOMA reconstruction, cleft lip, cleft palate, tumor excisions.
Ward E: General Surgery. Most patients on this ward will be having surgery to correct hernias, goiters, hydroceles, and lipomas.
You can find a more detailed list of all the surgeries perfomed under the "Medical" section of the Mercy Ships FAQ page
here .
I have been assigned to work in E ward... but so far the majority of my shifts have been on other wards! Over 10% of the crew has been down with a GI bug so the nurses have been shuffled to work in other wards. Additionally, my ward "closed" this weekend and moved our patients to other wards to consolidate because of the lower census. So for several reasons I have worked in the other wards over the past few weeks. It has been really neat to see what each ward is like and to learn how to take care of the different patient populations in each ward.
This past weekend I worked on B ward. This area has been a huge learning curve for me. Working in an emergency department at home, I did not have a ton of women's health patients. And I definitely never had a patient with a VVF. It has been very eye-opening and heart-breaking for me to learn about this issue and the stories that these women carry. Women here develop vesicovaginal fistulas when they are pregnant and experience an obstructed labor. In the US, if women were experiencing an obstructed labor, they would go for an emergency C-section and all would be well. Here, women do not have that option. They remain in obstructed labor for several days and ultimately (in most cases) deliver a still-born baby. For the women who survive this, they usually develop a fistula (or abnormal passage) between their bladder and vagina that results from the pressure of their baby during the several days of obstructed labor. This leads to a constant leaking of bladder and sometimes stool from their vagina. Because of the odor and inability to have children, many women are left by their husbands and are ostracized from their community. Their lives are completely changed. Currently, there are about 50,000 women in Madagascar who suffer with these fistulas with an additional 2,000 women each year.
It was an honor to care for some of these women this weekend. And it has been an honor to work with ALL the patients here on the Africa Mercy. Included below are some pictures taken by photographers here on the ship...enjoy!
This is a shot of the hospital crew.
Credit: Mercy Ships.
This is Mariette. She is a patient I cared for a few days on A Ward. She had a large soccer ball sized lipoma on her back that she has had for 30 years. This was her "before" picture.
Credit: Mercy Ships.
This is a little peak into D Ward. If you see the bed in the background, you will notice the mattress underneath the patient's bed. Here, caregivers sleep on a mattress under their family member's hospital bed. Can you imagine if we asked that of people back home? But it works here!
Credit: Mercy Ships
Mercy Ships has set up a Ponseti Clinic where they cast littles with clubbed feet for several weeks prior to them having a minor procedure to snip their achilles tendon in efforts of ultimately correcting their feet.
Credit: Mercy Ships.
This is Justina with one of our VVF patients.
Credit: Mercy Ships.
This patient had her facial tumor removed on the ship. I never worked with her, but I did happen to see her today at the Hope Center and she looks great and is all smiles! The Hope Center is a place patients stay pre-op (if they are traveling from afar) and post-op if they are discharged from the hospital but need to stick around for post-op visits.
Credit: Mercy Ships.
We had this little one on my ward for a little while. She had a burn contracture release performed. She was referred to by many as "chicken wing." She was the cutest thing, running around and singing with her little arm sticking outward!
Credit: Mercy Ships
As always, please let me know how y'all are doing at home! I would love to hear from you!
lindseymlang@gmail.com
