children's ward madness

For my last full week at the hospital I decided to go back to my favorite place, the children’s ward. I mean I had an idea the staff there liked me the first time I went but it was well confirmed when they thanked god for my return in their morning prayer on both Monday and Tuesday…. and then made me do the prayer on Wednesday. I really enjoy the children’s ward because it’s a nice mix of shadowing the doctor, administering medication, playing with cute kids and hearing interesting cases. This week happened to be extra crazy due to an influx in admissions, but it just made it more exciting. On Wednesday the ward was an absolute zoo with 46 patients and nowhere to walk because we only have 28 beds… but somehow we made it work. We had some of the most interesting patient stories I’ve heard all summer this week so I’ll pick some of my favorites to share. 

Bright and early on Monday morning we got a patient delivered with a police report attached. Apparently the mother thought it would be a good idea to feed her child chicken poop so the police wrote her up for abuse and then sent him to us for treatment. Dr. Boateng gets really mad when “stupid mothers” come in with children that are sick because of their own care. There’s a common practice here in Ghana where the mothers use edemas to try to stop their child from having diarrhea. Edemas are basically clumps of herbs that they stick up the children’s butt and then light on fire. It clearly sounds ridiculous and harmful but for some reason they think it’ll cure their child. As a result we get small children admitted to the ward with severe internal problems that are extremely difficult to treat in a timely manner. I often walk into the ward and find Dr Boateng yelling at the mothers but he admits that nothing is going to change their mind most of the time. He was telling me about a patient he had a while ago that was a completely healthy baby but they only complaint the mother had was that she wouldn’t sleep at night. After running a bunch of labs it clicked in his mind to ask the mother what she gives the child besides breast milk. The mom told him that she also gives her child cowbell dairy milk (which come in powder form that you add water too). Dr Boateng asked her to bring in the packets to see what she meant and sure enough, she was feeding her newborn coffee flavored milk. The packet was full of both caffeine and sugar, which would easily explain why the child was never able to sleep. While yelling at her he realized that she truly had no idea that coffee was bad for children in which he responded that she shouldn’t of had children without first getting an education.

I didn’t realize it until he was telling me this story that it must be really frustrating for those in Ghana who are really well-educated to watch those around them who refuse to get schooling. There are so many problems (especially in healthcare) that could be solved if the people here would just educate themselves and take care of their bodies. During rounds we spend so much extra time explaining proper nutrition and sanitation to young women. We get as basic as, “you must wash your hands after changing your baby’s diaper if you’re going to feed them right after” because these women honestly have no idea. Just yesterday I stopped a mother from wiping her child’s face with a cloth that she just used to put under the baby she was changing. It’s both sad and annoying that they all have access to free education and just refuse to put in the time and effort.

Anyways….back to the interesting patients. During rounds on Tuesday Dr Boateng got called to the maternity ward and told me to follow. Upon arriving we found a mother giving birth but the baby was stuck in the birth canal. Since babies can only be in the birth canal for a max of 30 minutes he took out a vacuum to suck the baby out. As if it wasn’t violent and painful already, in the middle of suctioning the stuck baby out he performed an episiotomy with a pair of scissors on the poor mother. After that traumatizing experience I vowed to not follow him to the maternity ward anymore.

I feel like I haven’t shared any interesting cultural information with you guys lately so I tried to put together some quick little details. First of all, there’s a HUGE stigma in health care here with any life-threatening disease so they have code names for health professionals to use when talking about them. At our hospital they use “ARTI” to indicate a patient’s folder that has HIV/AIDS. If they’re sending blood for an HIV test they’re getting a “spot” test and they call Tuberculosis “Cox’s Disease”. It gets really confusing when you’re looking at the folders and there’s a bunch of initials that you’ve never heard of but if someone glances at a folder they’ll never realize what they’re reading and the patient will be saved from the embarrassment they would face. It’s also very common in Ghana for husbands to live/work far away from their wife and children if the woman also has a career. At first we thought it was just an unfortunate situation for Ashley and Christina’s homestay dad but we now know that it’s extremely common. Surprisingly, the women here aren’t expected to give up their jobs and careers to be close to their husband. Instead, they basically live like single mothers and just get to see their husbands when they get time off. They also consider calling someone fat here a compliment because it means you’re well-nourished and can afford food. However, our homestay knows it’s insulting in America so they were asking me how we nicely call someone fat. After explaining to them that it’s quite impossible they offered the suggestion of calling people “supersized” because it sounds a lot nicer than “fat”. I assured them that was a HORRIBLE idea but they insisted….. so if a visiting Ghanaian calls you supersized in America it’s most-likely my homestay sisters.

This weekend we’re staying in Asikuma for a lot of exciting events. Tonight we’re attending a naming party where Ashley and Christina’s homestay dad will finally give a name to his month-old baby. Giving a baby a permanent name here is a really big deal so we’re going to attend the ceremony and party with our families. Tomorrow afternoon we’ve been invited to Dr Paublo’s house (the surgeon I shadowed for two weeks) where his wife is excited to make us an authentic Cuban meal and teach us how to dance. We’ll finish the weekend on Sunday by going to church with our family…. which should be an interesting experience. I honestly can’t believe this is already my last weekend in Asikuma before heading back to Cape Coast for good on Wednesday. But……. we’re not going to think/talk about that so I hope to update you all again soon!