A Christmas visit from my daughter

Modifying my actions to the Dagomba culture and the Dogomba nurses using the microscope and headlight are slow and awkward modifications of behavior. But, it is happening.

I have chosen to do only elective surgery until both iodine antiseptic is obtained to properly sterilize the patients’ skin and all my equipment is unpacked and organized. The hospital wards are in need of paint and freshening up, but seeing a rat emphasized the low standard of maintenance. For the privilege of being brought to the front of the line and being introduced as a family member, the patients pay the staff a fee. A common occurrence is the acceptance of a patient’s death when there is no available equipment, funds, and/or specialist to perform the necessary treatment to save a patient with a curable disease. Our proposal to renovate the hearing assessment room was denied because the original non-government agency has changed its mission. On the positive side, the chief ear, nose and throat nurse cancelled his travel plans in order to help me with an emergency tracheostomy.

A woman patient, who had been treated for asthma for three months, actually had stridor from an aryepiglottic, submucosal swelling which necessitated an urgent tracheostomy. Deeper biopsies will have to be done if the report is non-specific. Her swelling has reduced on post-operative antibiotics. Several thryrotoxic goiter patients with congestive heart failure and stridor had disappearance of their stridor when medically treated. Another patient with acute epiglottitis presented, but this patient also had jaundice and leukopenia. His human immunovirus test was negative. A sixteen-year-old boy with multiple facial fractures, Lafort I and II, and mandible was successfully referred and treated at Kofu-Annochi Hospital, in Kumasi.

Delighted to have my daughter Beth, visiting for Christmas.