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-I'm not sure I have ever prayed… but I did today! I'm not sure who, or what I prayed to, but I prayed!....................
Our trekking team of 5 (including myself) assembled this morning and we set of in our truck to a particularly remote village! We arrived, set up and began our days work! Shortly into my antenatal clinic, a small boy runs up to me, pulling on my shirt and asking me to come, he looked a little panicked! I tell Awa (my student) to continue and that i will be back in just a minute! I grab a pair of gloves and go with the boy. I'm now running to keep up with him, we arrive at this mut hut…. I go inside, and see an exhausted women on the floor, pushing!
The two women that are with her look at me with these desperate eyes, asking me to help! Just as I was considering going back for some help, I see the head advancing… so I guess the decision was made for me… I had to stay! I wanted to ask so many questions, so I could get at least some idea of what I was dealing with, but the women didn't speak any English, and my Wolof certainly wasn't good enough to ascertain any information! So within minutes I deliver this baby boy,….. breath…… please breath…..I hear myself muttering as I'm rubbing it frantically,within a minute but what felt like 5 hours it began to cry! Thank God, I can't tell you how relieved I was! So anyway I wrap it up and hand it to one of the ladies whilst I delivered the placenta.
Placenta is out…. And she starts to hose………… she is bleeding like I have never seen!
Oh God this has got to be the worse case scenario of my life! I go into this automatic mode that has been drilled into me at Princess Royal (thank you)only problem I'm in a bloody mud hut… there is no emergency buzzer, no doctor, in fact not even another midwife, no theatre… I guess the scene is set! So I'm rubbing up a contraction, and trying to tell one of the locals to go back to base and get help….. but they all just look blankly at me, I guess also in shock! How much I would love one of my buddy's at PRH to walk in now! OK they are defiantly not going to, and I'm defiantly going to have to do something! She has now passed out, and pretty much unresponsive, her pulse is very weak! The uterus feels a little more contracted and the bleeding has slowed down a bit, I grab the other ladies hand and place it firmly on the mothers uterus, showing her how to contract it…… it looks like she understands what I mean, so now is my chance. I leg it back to base, (it was much further than I had remembered) I grab a cannula which I had just by chance seen earlier at the bottom of a box, the only bag of fluid we had and jumped in the truck, picked up a couple of the guys and burned it back to the hut!
Oh God she dead…. I shouldn't have left her!
No…. she is alive, thank god she is alive, I cannulated her, (securing it with my head scarf),(I always imagined that under those circumstances I would buckle and fail, but I tell you when you need to… you just do!) And run the fluid though, the bleeding is minimal but she is still unresponsive! i beg to take her to the hospital, she will without a doubt die if we don't!
They agree! But I have to stay to look after the clinic, and the care assistant would go! But to be honest I'm not sure I was any more help in the car with her than anyone else now, what more could I have done with no equipment? We lie her flat,I tie the bag of fluid to the roof of the car, tell musa (care assistant) not to take his hands of her uterus, and Wandifa (driver) to burn it back to the hospital!
I spent the rest of the clinic praying! Praying that she made it to the hospital!
Later, the boys came back in the truck to pick us up!
She made it to the hospital, but in a poor state!
We finish our clinic and head back, I had that horrible sick feeling all the way, I was dropped of at the hospital, ran into the labour ward and could have cried with joy when I saw her there… alive! She was having a transfusion and looked considerably better than when I had seen her last! On arrival to the hospital her HB was 2!
So another mental day…… but this time a great out come!
I had a message of a very wise friend yesterday … firmly reminding me of the need to remember the ones I helped, not the ones I didn't! (thanks Ben) and I guess this is a case I will always remember!
I can't tell describe how beautiful it is here! I watch the stars every night and wish that you guys could see them too! When I'm star gazing, and thinking/ worrying/ or just trying to make sense of something, a fire fly appears and dances around me! Then he disappears….. Then suddenly I realize I'm not worrying about whatever I was worrying about, instead I'm captivated but the firefly! So I have decided that the fireflies are like worry dolls! When I'm worried about something, I go out at night, think about it, and wait for the fire flies to take them away!!
I'm going to visit my friend again this weekend who is just a few hours away working with the chimps! Oh it so amazing, the chimps are wonderful, I have decided when I want a change from midwifery I'm going to work with primates! Anyway I'm looking forward to it, last weekend we went on the river, saw crocks, hippos, a loads of totally amazing birds, baboons, monkeys and of course the chimps! It's also brilliant to hang out with Jess, she is from South Africa and is totally wicked!
So I will love you and leave you! Thinking of you all loads, and missing you!
Also… thanks for all your support, your truly wonderful friends!
All my love and hugs…Kate xxx
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