SteeTime started off as a travelogue. I was a medical student gallivanting around various cities in East and Southern Africa. It was extraordinary. So extraordinary I tried to put it in print and since the wave of blogging had ebbed into play; It's SteeTime was born.
The thorough adventure that was Medical School came to an end and I left Uganda to pursue my internship in Nairobi, Kenya. In an article called My African Doctor experience I wrote:
Do I miss internship days? Most certainly. Would I do it again? Uhm....no.
The thorough adventure that was Medical School came to an end and I left Uganda to pursue my internship in Nairobi, Kenya. In an article called My African Doctor experience I wrote:
I graduated in 2009 and opted to do my internship in Kenya.
I thought I might as well, seeing as I’m
on a roll with all this gallivanting around Africa. I was admitted into a
district hospital smack-dab in the middle of Nairobi which people cheekily coined
“Nai-robbery”. Our hospital was situated near an informal urban settlement, the
famous Kibera slum. You can imagine how colourful each night call was. Casualty
had drama that television could never match. Ranging from machete fight wounds
to resuscitating babies delivered on the side of the road. Poverty was advert
and we frequently had patients treated who could not pay the hospital bill.
They would become ‘discharge-in’s’ who simply occupied beds with no apparent
ailment.
Paediatrics department was terribly full because government policy was
for free treatment for under-fives. As an intern, we had to man the ward of
over a hundred children, about ten in intensive care and also put in canula’s
for as many whose IV lines tissued. And deal with whatever emergency cropped
up. One cannot forget this experience. Every morning, we would have to present
all the cases of new admissions and reviews of the children in acute room to
our senior consultants who still asked you difficult questions of theory.
Meanwhile you were just happy the children were still breathing!
Obstetrics and Gynaecology rotation had similar feats. We
were taught in the first 3 weeks how to perform a Ceasarian sections. From that
moment forth if you were on call it was your duty to do it. You had to diagnose
the emergency and organize for the surgical team to show up and do the surgery
in a timely manner. You did not expect to sleep when you were on Obs-Gyn call
because even on a calm night the midwives would call you for the most minor
complaints. Emergency procedures became our specialties being capable of
treating eclampsia, post-partum haemorrhage, rupture ectopic pregnancies and
others very well and unsupervised.
The work overload became routine, seeing the same diseases
over and over. HIV has a 6% prevalence in Kenya which is still high for a
population of 40million people. Hypertension and Diabetes Type 2 had special
clinics because their prevalence was rising at an alarming rate due to the
‘coca-colarization’ phenomenon. Major surgeries were still performed by the
surgeons but any needing specialized care were referred to the national
referral hospital. As, interns we still had to do any minor surgeries such as
basic STS’s, incision and drainages and excision of foreign bodies. Lignocaine
was frequently carried in one’s coat pocket because you always needed it.
Do I miss internship days? Most certainly. Would I do it again? Uhm....no.
mmmh at 'Nai-robbery...that's quite cheeky. At you had 'discharge-in's' lol i like ...so waiting for one... 'life as medic in nazareth hosp.' keep up with your writting wits'
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