One Happy Family And "Tuck In Those Mosquito Nets"

                           Excellent Anesthesia

                   Donated Karl Storz Telescopic Forceps

          Groundnut (Peanut Shell) which blocked his trachea and breathing.

   The happy mother and child the day after the removal of the obstructing groundnut (peanut) shell.

             This past Wednesday morning we were to perform the first laryngectomy and neck dissection in northern Ghana. At eleven o’clock the evening before, we were called to the hospital for a three year old child who aspirated a groundnut shell into his trachea causing him severe airway obstruction. The peanut shell was successfully removed with the help of donated Karl Storz telescopic forceps and a Project Cure video monitor and camera. The child’s family was overjoyed at the remarkable life-saving outcome for their child and subsequently thanked us several times. After finishing this case at four am, I was unable to retrieve my house keys due to a faulty clinic lock, so I slept in the hospital until 7 am, ate two cartoons of cookies, drank two cartoons of juice and performed the laryngectomy, finishing that evening at 7 pm.
Northern Ghana is presently in its rainy season, with 76 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, many mosquitoes and numerous patients with malaria. Malaria worldwide kills one person every two minutes. Here ninety percent of the mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite and can inject one thousand malaria parasites into you with each bite. Only one malaria parasite has to survive to result in a person getting malaria. For a week I had been bitten four times a night until a visiting  guest mentioned that they tucked their mosquito net under their mattress and when I did the same, there were no longer any bites and I had a restful night’s sleep. The only reason I do not have malaria is due to my daily anti-malaria malarone.