Casualty

This week will be spent in the casualty ward. I was extremely nervous for this section of the hospital my whole trip. This is because I don’t want to see anybody die in front of me. I think I would have a slight meltdown and be a little unstable for a couple days following. I just think I’m better suited to work with the children (: But, it’s good experience for me, and I learn a lot no matter which department I am in. I think what made me even more nervous was the fact that G.F. Jooste hospital is located on the outskirts of a township called Manenberg, which is known for its violence…and nothing compares to South African violence. I was warned that I would see horrendous things; stab and gunshot wounds, assault victims, tik (crystal meth) and other drug addicts, and everything I can imagine. When we arrived, there was a man just being rushed out of the resus room to surgery. He had a gunshot wound to his hip and lower abdomen. Two other patients ended up in resus that day. Resus is very small here, consisting of only four beds, so only those who really need it get the space. The first resuscitation bed was given to a woman who came in unresponsive and unconscious. She had been in this state since Friday—three days earlier than she was brought into the hospital! I can’t imagine not bringing somebody to the hospital when they are unconscious for over 2 hours, not to mention three days later! Anyhow, they had to tube her to ensure that she would breathe properly, give her a catheter (she hadn’t peed for three days, so the filled up the entire bag in five minutes!!), lumbar puncture to test her cerebrospinal fluid, and a femoral blood sample. The doctors weren’t sure what was going on, so they wanted to check everything out. The second bed went to a man who had severe pneumonia; so bad that he could barely breathe. More than half of both of his lungs were blocked, so he had less than one lung total. He was breathing so heavily and stressed, that the doctors immediately wanted to tube him. They said that if he kept breathing like that on his own, his heart would get tired in about an hour and stop. So, they put the man to sleep, told him he would see his wife when we woke up, and tubed him. We did rounds with the doctors to see all of the patients in the general casualty ward. It is a giant room with 21 beds, and no matter what somebody has, they all go into this room (unless of course they go into casualty). Every patient was HIV positive, and most of them had TB. A lot of them had HIV-related illnesses which lead them to be in the hospital. Nothing else really stuck out to me in the general ward.

We still had the car, and Miles, Lauren and I had all heard about this curios shop on Long Street downtown. Lauren hadn’t yet experienced the African crafts as Miles and I had in Durban, so we wanted to introduce her. We dropped Miles off to get a haircut (after we got lost trying to find the place), and Lauren and I headed to the Pan-African Market. It was such a cool place! It was a four story building, and each floor was PACKED with sellers. The layout of every floor was in the shape of a square—the hallways were placed so that as we walked down the hall, there were doors on each side of us the length of the hallway, leading into tons of little rooms each occupied by a different seller, and each offering different crafts to buy. It was so huge! I think Lauren ended up being a little overwhelmed. There was SO much stuff, and the craft sellers are pretty forceful. They all tell you that they will give you “special price just for you” and as you look often walk along with you and shove things in your face. As a first timer, it’s hard to know how to react to this—I was the same way! So I’m glad I was there to help her, as I have experienced this all in Durban. Just down the street is a place called the Green Market Square, which is very similar to the craft markets that line the beach in Durban, except this is all in a little (literally) market square in the middle of town. We were going to stop and check it out, but it was selling all of the same stuff as in the Pan-African market, and we didn’t have much time. We needed to return our rental at the airport, and we were about 35 minutes away with no traffic….it was almost 4pm…not so good. We rushed to pick up Miles, and headed straight for the freeway. We didn’t make it too far; the streets even before the freeway were totally packed, and then the freeway was just as packed once we finally got on it! We weren’t sure if we were going to make it. It ended up taking us almost an hour and a half to get there, and it was just barely in time. We took a taxi back to our home stays—it was already pretty late, and we were all still a little tired. I went to bed pretty early (: