On Call

This was my first weekend on call at Karanda. My first call came at 1 am Fri. night/Sat. morning for an urgent C-section. I had to concentrate a
little harder simce I has been a few months, but everything turned out well. As I was walking out the door to go home a nurse said, "we'll take the next patient back now..." I finally walked out of the hospital at 5 am and the sky was already turning pink on the horizon.

Saturday evening brought another C-section double-header, making 4 in 24 hrs. Sunday morning as I was finishing rounds just before church I saw a scrub tech walk out of the maternity ward and asked what she was up to.
Her: "C-section"
Me: "When?"
Her: "Now"
I missed church but I could hear a little bit of the beautiful Shona singing as I waited for patient #5 to be ready.

Saturday afternoon brought a 9 yo girl after a "road traffic accident." Her left upper arm was broken, with much of the skin gone and bone exposed through torn muscle. I called Dr. Stephens who does the Ortho surgery here, and helped him put in a pin to hold the bone together and then close up the torn tissue.

Being on call here gives an experience like no other, as we are small town ER and major referral center combined into one. I'm thankful for the competent African nursing staff here who are extremely helpful and make things run smoothly despite the occasional chaos and limited resources.

I did have another interesting case while on call this weekend, but I'll write about that later. It's a story that needs it's own page.