Valentine's Day

Hi! Happy Valentine's Day! It's 2:15am. You can't imagine how efficient we were. I was called back to the hospital at 11:30pm to see a child admitted to the ER with acute appendicitis. Then I saw another young man with incarcerated inguinal hernia. From the time of leaving home, seeing patients in the ER, preparing them for the Operating Theatre, finishing two operations, recovery of the patients, and then back home, it had taken less than three hours. We had to be transferred by the MSF vehicle for safety reasons. Our journey took about five minutes. I had a very interesting experience tonight. I sat in front of a water-container to wash my hands before surgery. As I told you before, the hospital has to use water-tanks to collect water for use. It's time for them to clean the tanks at midnight, so there is no water from the tap. Each ward has an emergency water container to save water for urgent use. Each container may store about 20 gallons of water. There are four to five in OT. As the container was put on a table with a tap on the side, I had to sit at the table to clean my hands. The hospital was set up in an unused school in 2003. So there is absolutely no such design for hospital use. We use the classrooms as wards. Each ward is equipped with a water sink. It's a two-storey building. If we need to transfer patients between floors, we have to carry them with the hand-held stretcher. For patients going to have operations, they come to the OT themselves if they can walk. We only carry those who are sick or after anaesthesia. In OT, there are a limited number of instruments. We have to clean and sterilize them immediately after use so we try not to use too many instruments, if possible. I used only ten pieces to finish my last appendectomy. We try to save as many consumables as possible. It's not much due to the money but more due to the limited supply. I think I have not been woken up for an acute appendectomy for nearly ten years. Fortunately I can perform well in a sleepy state. It's the best Valentine's Day gift for all of you, isn't it? After the operation, I went out to the open space waiting for my colleague. There were many people lying on the floor outside the hospital building. Most of them are the patient's relatives and friends staying in the hospital but living far away. They could not afford to travel too frequently. Sometimes we can make use of them to help our patients' recovery. Yesterday afternoon, I checked the e-mail and found Dr Tinsley's mail about the outbreak of H5N1 Bird Flu virus on the African continent in Nigeria. Liberia is not too far away from Nigeria. There are plenty of birds and chickens around. People keep some chickens in the backyard. Children are playing around anywhere. The situation is highly vulnerable to the infection. It's lucky that I brought along my desktop. It carries lots of information from HA and the Department of Health. I can make use of the materials to share with them. I hope we can do something more to educate the public, especially the children. When I told two of the physician assistants about this, they were very happy to learn that. They are looking forward to hearing from me. I like their attitude and motivation very much. Au Yiu Kai