Well, tomorrow we are off to Durban and then we begin our lovely twenty six day holiday. We are very much looking forward to Cape Town, Namibia and Kruger.
However, we feel great sadness leaving Ingwavuma which has been our home for nearly a year. The beauty of this place never ceases to amaze me. The Lebombo mountains, the magical sunsets (and sunrises if I am up in time), Fancy Stitch, the children playing, the cows and dogs surviving in the road and the hustle and bustle of life here. I will miss greeting everyone with ‘Sawabona’ or ‘Yebo’ and I will miss the laughter.
The past four weeks have been my busiest as a doctor. I have been on-call ten times in four weeks. There have been many sleepless nights but my highlight came on one of my on-calls. I was working a few weekends ago when a child was handed to me in my arms from one of the ambulance men. I was alone in the resuscitation room. I looked down to see a blue baby gasping. His mum was crying in the background. Both she and I knew he was going to die very soon.
I immediately took his clothes off to find non-stop diarrhoea. His Mum admitted to giving an enema a few hours earlier. I told the ambulance crew to stay with me and began to resuscitate him with oxygen and fluids. My heart always beats a bit quicker with the prospect of securing intravenous access on these four month frought babies. The child was shocked so his veins in his arms and feet would be hard to find. Often, it takes me seven or eight attempts before I get the cannula into the vein. IV fluids is the only thing that may save the baby. I did not have the time for several attempts. Amazingly (and very luckily), I was successful on my first attempt. I took some blood to send it for basic tests. We secured the drip with cardboard, bandage and tape. I asked one of the ambulance women to stand on a chair and squeeze the fluids into the vein. We drew up the necessary antibiotics and gave them to the child. He had survived the first ten minutes in hospital, there was hope.
The bloods came back thirty minutes later and they were dreadful. He had severe metabolic acidosis and his potassium was dangerously low. I gave him IV potassium. He survived for first hour and I sent him to the ward. The next morning, I went to see if he had survived the night. He had. Eight days after coming in – Wonderboy (his Mum named him appropriately) went home. I took a photo of him and me. He looked so well – unrecognisable to how he arrived. The Mum told me she would never give an enema again – I hope she does not.
I have so enjoyed my work here – the wards (Paediatrics, Isolation, Male and Female), the variety of our outpatient department and the clinics have been my favourite. Today at lunchtime, the staff on female ward are throwing me a ‘surprise’ farewell party – such a nice touch especially as many of them have so little. We will sing and dance and laugh. They have also invited Henry.
On Tuesday after my on-call, we had Sophie and her daughter over for one last lunch together. Sophie is our cleaner, handwasher of clothes and so much more. She is my Zulu mum here and I love her to bits. Henry and I decided to give her everything that cannot fit into our backpack. So, she received over half of our clothes, most of our shoes, our bedding and kitchen stuff. She and her daughter are thrilled. Yesterday, whilst I was busy on my ward, Sophie popped her head in and pointed to her feet. I looked down to see my very old shoes on her feet and a big smile on her face. She was thrilled. Sophie is an incredible woman. She has had a tough life but has never complained. She has raised four children who are all doing well. I will miss her very much.
Tonight we are having a farewell braai and we are looking forward to having all our friends around. This is what I will miss most about this place – the amazing friends we have made. Nat, Ty, Bee, Bird, Sarah, Bjorn, Kath, Emma, Donne, Toni, Marge, Megs, Ruth, Simon, Smah, Swifty, Bridget, Janet, Andries, Bernard, Pheobe, Daniel, Maryna, Holger, Sam - thank you for your friendship, kindness and generosity. We will miss you!
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