December 19 - 22 2011
The week began with a new reminder of the difficult medical inequality for people in Ethiopia. A patient with a very severe infection of the upper left yaw. The infection had caused necrosis of the bone and it looked almost like cancer. A biopsy had rolled out the cancer diagnosis so a curable operation could have been made. An operation was decided next morning but when we came we were told that the family had gone home for money. They haven’t come back so one can wonder about the situation for the patient. This is the problem we face as long as we don't have our own operation facility with general anesthesia. We have to rely on the routines at this small private hospital. They allow reduction fees for many patients who are in special need but to know how to support is difficult and patients or rather the family says that they will get money and then it happens that they don't return.
We had tried to locate the family of the baby with mandibular fracture I operated last year. That was shown not to be easy. As there are no personal numbers or social security numbers it is very difficult to do follow ups here. There are patients cards but data like address are often missing and cards are often renewed on every visit. I made a “WANTED” paper with a picture of the mother and twins and date of surgery. A doctor at the dental department then tried to find if anyone on the hospital remember how they where and where they might be living. The hope for success was limited.
On Thursday morning Samuel got a call from the hospital and we were asked to come. They said that they had some information. When we got there we were surprised seeing the mother and children. I was very happy to find that the baby looked fine and the jaw was in correct position and you could not see a sign in the moth that the mandible had been divided. The scar was not seen in normal position of the head but of course seen from below. The mother had walked to the hospital with one twin on her back and the other was carried by her about 5-6 years old son. They had probably walked an hour and a half so we decided to drive them home. They are living at a small farm just outside the town. We walked the last part and was invited to see how they live. Now we know how to find them next year so we can follow up and perhaps see if the teeth are coming normal.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and here you can't feel that it is some special. It feels like midsummer time but we are now slowly getting aware that we soon are getting home. That’s nothing we want. We would like to stay longer. A sad thing is that the container is not coming to Bahir Dar while we are here. It is now in Addis Ababa and the paper works are ok so now it would be just the customs check of what is in the container. The container will probably arrive a few days after we left.
