Hello Friends and Family, reporting from equatorial Papua
New Guinea:
It has been a fairly quiet time here. I have been sick with
the viral crud, but I am now on the mend. I hope none of you have been sick,
and if you have, I hope you are feeling better.
Surgery and clinic have been running fairly smooth as of
late. I had two ectopic pregnancy surgeries soon after we arrived, but nothing
else until a few days ago. I have now had three ectopic cases in the past five
days. The one today was exciting; the woman had 3.5 liters of blood in her
abdomen. She looks good, so that may be enough. Her
hemoglobin is now 8 grams.
She reported feeling bad for the past six days and came in today after
fainting. So far, I have given her 4 units of blood.
There was another exciting case two weeks ago. The patient
had the usual fulminate case of PID with secondary bowel obstruction to
complicate. She tolerated surgery, but arrested in recovery. Following resuscitation,
her pulse ox was stuck in the 40-50% range – even on 100% O2. She was on
dopamine and received large doses of diuretic. We felt she had shock-lung and
without a ventilator I did not give her much hope. When I arrived the following
morning, she was still with us, had revived from her coma and was looking
around. Her pulse ox was now in the mid to upper 80s. She recovered rapidly and
went home 7-8 days later. They say miracles happen every day, and I must say
that is the only explanation for her recovery. God was surely watching over
her.
OB has also been fairly quiet. I did have a problem with a
nurse giving a mistaken dose of vaginal cytotec to a premature labor patient.
Thankfully, she only gave 25 micrograms and the premature labor medication
quieted her down without incident. We also discovered her to be a newly
diagnosed case of HIV. I have been seeing two new cases each week with
retro-viral problems. It is very sad to contemplate the prospects for unwitting
victims.
Hope you are doing well and enjoying spring. My second batch
of sauerkraut is nearly done. The first batch was very tasty.
Bye All,
Dr. P & Tyronza
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