sad day

So today was a very sad day and made me realize even more the importance of advancement in medicine. A woman came in today in premature labor. She was in the late stages of her second trimester. She came into the clinic because she was in extreme pain and noticed some blood. She waited for some time before she came in because it is part of the culture not to go to the clinic unless you are really close to having the baby. By the time the woman made it to the clinic she had bleed a lot and was really confused and disoriented. The nurses checked her out when she got there and noticed that there were some problems beyond the help of the clinic. They started and IV on her and put her in an ambulance, which is basically a 16 passenger van with the back seats taken out. She was transported to Mt. Meru Hospital. The hospital is basically a hallway with some rooms on the side. She was taken to a room where she was given a unit of blood but by this point it was too late. The mother and baby both died. It was really hard to see. The woman was probably in her middle 20’s. During all this time the family was outside the hospital waiting on the grass because they were not allowed to come in. The staff had to go outside to the grass and tell the family that both the mother and baby were gone. It was terrible. It leaves me with many questions though. If she had gone in sooner would she still be alive? If she was taught to come in at the first sight of blood would she be alive? If the clinic had the proper supplies and capabilities would she still be alive? If the clinic had the proper medicine to help stop the bleeding would she still be alive? If a c-section could have been performed would the baby at least lived and maybe the mother? If she was in a hospital in America would she have survived? There are so many questions yet so little answers. It really makes you think about the value of life and the values of advances of medicine and the need to continually push for more. Besides that I did help deliver a healthy baby boy today and two healthy baby girls. I was really happy for the new parents but I could not take my mind off the lost mother and child. It really was heart breaking. I know that there can always be complications but being left with so many questions makes in hard to come to grips with.

I also went to the family planning section of the clinic. Here they teach women how to put condoms on males and emphasize the importance of condom usage. Besides condoms there are three different methods of birth control available. First, there are pills, which is not a widely used form. Second, there are injections, which is utilized by a lot of people. Lastly, there is implantation where a device is inserted into the arm. The main difference for using injection versus implantation is the amount of time the woman would like the birth control to last. The injection is only good for 3 months, whereas the implantation is good for up to five years.

On another note, the water is gone again, but for now the power is back on! It is frustrating because other volunteers from homestays are coming to eat lunch and dinner and not telling the cooks and so we have ran out of food and some of us are left to fend for ourselves or be hungry. But I guess your stomach eventually adapts to the change in portion size. We had spaghetti for lunch with pineapples and mangos, and toast for breakfast, and we are having eggs with fries for dinner and some chicken. Our diet here is basically all carbs. When I get home you can be guaranteed that I will be eating a big juicy piece of some kind of meat!!

I hope all is well with everyone. Thank you for reading the blog, all the thoughts and prayers, and all the comments. They make me smile and not feel over 10,000 miles away!