A post written last month, but now being posted

We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After two years of hard work, our ear, nose and throat clinic and operating room are modern and functioning well. We have advanced from just handling emergencies to doing elective cases. Our first elective case was a 62 year old woman with a 2.5 cm submandibular stone. She did fine. There are many cases waiting with extensive congenital branchial cleft cysts, teratomas, dermoids and chronic ears and nasal polyps. These patients cannot afford to travel south for their surgery. On a tragic, sad note, Eunice, my excellent recently graduated nurse, cried when a seventeen year old boy died from complications of a fish bone lodged in his throat. The boy presented after ten days with retropharyngeal, retroesophageal and neck abscesses, septicemia, mediastinitis and anemia which led to a brain abscess, seizures, inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion and cardiopulmonary arrest. After the boy died, Eunice asked if I believed in witches as she found it difficult to understand why a young boy died so quickly from a fish bone.

All items from the two containers have been distributed and now I can spend my time solely on otolaryngology. Some of the equipment worked for a while then stopped, so maintenance is a problem. After surgery the equipment does not always get back to us and missing pieces of equipment are a problem. The pieces show up eventually, but one cannot do some surgery confidently until the equipment is located and working again.