Imagine

Imagine you are pregnant.  Now if you are a guy, that may be a little difficult.  

Imagine you have waited 9 long months to deliver.  Most people stay at home to deliver, but not you.  No.  You go to the hospital.  

You get there and you are 4cm dilated.  You progress to 6cm.  

That’s all the history that was written in the carnet (medical booklet).  

I can imagine what happened next, but I don’t really know.  I KNOW that she had a c-section.  I KNOW something went wrong.  I’m not sure why.  

I KNOW when the family brought her to us she was a week out of her c-section and her abdomen was completely open...as in the fascia (the stuff that holds the intestines inside) was wide open.  She was infected and there was a layer of granulation tissue covering everything, so we cleaned her out and packed the incision every day to try to stop the infection.  

Later we brought her back to the operating room and probed around some more.  We found that the uterus had also been either left open or not been closed properly.  Her lower uterine segment and rest of the uterus was wide open.  It was hard to tell what was what with all of the infection and inflammation.  After closing the uterus, which is actually hard to do late in the game, more cleaning, irrigation, and separating out the fascia, we closed the fascia with a couple of big drains in place.  

She is still recovering several weeks out with dressing changes of her incision, but the impact of her unimaginable c-section will forever be with her.  Her baby died before coming to us.  She almost died.  

We have received 3 unimaginable cases over the past several months that were from this other hospital not too far from us.  There is a “surgeon” there, but he or she can’t be a real surgeon.  If he or she were in a first world country, they would be put in prison.  

The first case was a necrotic colon that was opened and closed, not referred, and forced to stay at the hospital 3 days after the surgery.  Thankfully the family refused and finally brought him to us.  My dad removed part of his colon, put a colostomy (a poop bag) in, then later Dr. Greg and Dad reattached the colon to his rectum.  He’s now functioning normally again.  

The second case was a lady who had a c-section for “fetal distress.”  She was referred to us AFTER they had cut into her and figured out they did not have any sutures to close her.  She arrived with intestines swooping out of her abdomen.  At least that was the same day as her surgery.  

If you knew the roads here, you would understand that THIS IS DANGEROUS.  This would be dangerous anywhere in the world, but really.....here??????

The third case was this current c-section lady.  I don’t know why she had a c-section because this SO CALLED SURGEON does not have enough guts to write us a note to tell us what happened.  Why would they write anything, then someone could pin it on them I guess.  For now, they stay hidden behind the operating room doors????  I asked the family if they knew who operated and they said they didn’t because he or she hadn’t done rounds on them.  

Imagine.  Performing an awful case like that and then not having the guts to see your patient and follow up how they were doing.  For ONE WEEK!!!!!  He or she left her to die.

Imagine going to have a baby.  Being responsible and ACTUALLY going to the “hospital” if that’s what you want to call it, and then leaving almost dead and with a dead baby.  

This is especially frustrating when we have trained surgeons coming to volunteer here.  Trained professionals.  People who know what they are doing.  And because of our MCD, we have to have all of the right paperwork to be just so.  And.....this “surgeon” CONTINUES to practice without any intervention.  

At the last regional health meeting that Olen went to the “statistics” were displayed.  A lot of the math did not add up.  Still you could see that Bere does a lot more c-sections than other places.  So....the ‘smart’ leaders were ragging on our c-section rates.  However, it’s not that difficult to see that we are a referral hospital.  Uncomplicated deliveries deliver at home.  Any uncomplicated delivery can turn complicated quickly.  The complicated ones get referred to us....usually very late in the game.  I get so frustrated when big shots (who know little about OB anyway) sit behind their desks and look at numbers and try to harp on the good care that you know you are giving.  I would deliver at our hospital too if I had to chose between a surgeon leaving me wide open or closing me up.  You don’t have to be that good.  Just do the right thing. 

This is a corrupt place!  You could not even begin to imagine.  Please continue to pray for the healing of our patients.  Pray that this woman can imagine that there is a God who loves her even though she probably feels like dying.  

What happened to the other cases that DIDN’T get referred?  

I can imagine why patients come so late to the hospital.  They are scared.  And rightly so.  Before we came we were quoted that 3/10 patients would die intraoperatively during a c-section at other hospitals.  I can imagine why now.