Cattle, gun and dangerous games

Because of the hot weather and unpredictable rain, agriculture is not that reliable in South Sudan. Just like last year when the rain decrease, there was failure of crops which lead to shortage of food this year. This sort of climate leads to savanna type of environment which is good for cattle breeding. So cattle become a very important part in the life of South Sudanese. The number of cows one has shows one's social status and usually you need more than 20 cows to have a woman as wife, and of course one can have many wives here. Yesterday I know there's a man with 13 wives and 94 children. Raising the cows, one need to herd the cattle for grazing in the savanna and is exposed to wild animals attack and robbery from other people especially from another tribe. So most cattle breeders are armed, mainly with machine guns. That's why there are constant injuries from violence of this sort and of course mainly ending in gunshot wounds. In our hospital, there are always patients with gunshot wound any time of the year. And because of the abundance of guns at home, children can handle the guns sometimes and it's normal for them to imitate adults in playing with it. So there are always home accidents with children when they are playing with the guns. Keka, 9 years old boy was admitted last week in the middle of the night with gunshot wound in both arms by one single bullet when his 11 year old brother was playing with a gun. He was bending down with the arms hanging down when he got shot. It gave him the 1st entry wound for the bullet in the lateral aspect of his right arm, hit and broken his arm bone then exit from the medial side. The bullet enter again on the medial side of his left arm and shattered his left arm bone and exit from the lateral aspect of his left arm. There is a 5th wound at the anterior aspect caused by the shattered bone. As a result he got 5 wounds by one bullet, 2 broken arm bones with the left one lost 1/4 of its length. He had 2 operations up to now, the first one to clean and cut away all dirty and dead tissues and any loose bone fragments. Then the second one to check the cleanliness which was quite good so I could sutured and closed all five wounds for him and with the arm bones putting into the best possible position and protected by backslabs made out of plaster of Paris. His wounds were checked yesterday and looked good and everyone is so happy for his quick recovery. He probably needs to stay in our hospital for 2 more week and can go home happily with the wounds and bones united. Without the presence of MSF medical facility here, he probably will end up armless to the best and may as well die from a wound infection. So to all our supporters of MSF, you all are doing a great job in donating to us to make these all possible and supporting us spiritually to fuel our passion for keep going with these difficult works in a difficult setting! Thanks!