Stab wound to the chest

I am sorry that I have not written a blog in ages – so much has happened since I last wrote – but Henry has done a very good job at keeping you updated of our going ons!

It was five weeks ago today that I won the Ingwavuma Women’s half marathon. (And the enormity of the achievement is beginning to sink in. It has been a whirlwind of media engagements and award ceremonies. I have been nominated as the local newspaper’s woman of the year.) Regretfully, I am still missing one toe nail. So, I have not run since. It is without doubt the hardest physical challenge I have ever undertaken! (Not counting my double gold weight lifting medals from the Moscow Olympics.)

A week later, were on our amazing holiday with Eimear. We managed to pack in lots into our two weeks and a bit time together including game parks, turtle tracking, hiking in the Drakensberg mountains and pony trekking in Lesotho. It was really amazing!

I then came back to 12 days on the trot – 7 of the 12 days involved me being on-call. There is something very comforting to me about being able to work as a doctor at Mosvold. It is ridiculously busy (especially the past week as we are down 4 doctors who are on holiday) but very humbling. There are so many moments at work when I laugh and think I should definitely write a blog about this – the snake bites (not so keen when the family hands me the puff adder in a spar bag – luckily it was dead), the many fractures involved when the umkhulu (grandfather) is chasing a goat or the newborn babies handed to me under a massive blanket. Then there are the sad moments – too many rape victims and too many young people dying of HIV and/or TB. Lastly, there are the scary moments. This happened to me on-call last Sunday. I had just got home for supper (Henry Oliver had once again rustled up a scrummy meal – using only organic ingredients) and was finishing up when I received a phone call from OPD to say that a patient had been brought in with a stab wound. Fortunately we don’t get many of these in Ingwavuma. And we get almost no gun shot wound victims as the people are too poor to purchase firearms. Anyway, it was my first case and I ran to the hospital. Once there – in a sweat – I quickly assessed my patient and saw a hole in his left chest. I sealed it with a finger. (Help! Did I remember to remove this? Too late now!) I then got some gauze. I was excited and terrified but the nurses continued at their slow and steady pace. The man was talking to me and after an x-ray which revealed a haemoperitoneum (blood in the chest), I inserted a chest drain and sent him to male ward. He went home a few days later.

With a weekend off, we are down at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Park in search of cats. Henry will write on Monday with details.

Being incredibly tired, I have just fallen asleep before finishing this blog. But it is ok. I can trust my husband to post it on our site without making any infantile additions. Night everyone.