The right place

Today was another regular day at Siem Reab Referral Hospital. Staff meeting, ward rounds (the new patients and the ones that we operated on yesterday), and off to the OR. Katie had to work until an amazing 13.45h before she was let free to have lunch. I had been hanging around since 12.30 waiting for her. This might sound a bit harsh for me so I must add that this "waiting" consisted of having a cappuccino and a cinnamon roll in a nearby coffee place. But half an hour later we were ready again for the emergency surgery. And soon enough it found us!

First Katie was dispatched to Room A with dr Rithy for an appendectomy. And I waited for the intramedullary-nail-material to finish it's sterilization proces after this morning's use. But my waiting (in horizontal position in one of the hospital beds in the hall) was rudely and bruskly interrupted when I was hauled in Room B for some heavy lifting and pulling. The patient was a 40 year old with a dislocated hip since a month who decided to come to the hospital after all. He was layed on the floor (that makes it easier for the doctors and also because during the manipulating it avoids the patient falling from the OR table to the floor below) and sedated. My job at first was to hold down the patient while two other doctors were pulling his leg (no pun intended), hoping for the bones to snap back in place. But after a couple of minutes we were all panting and sweating. Then we switched and I pulled the leg as hard as I could; lifting the patient off the floor despite the efforts of the three people trying to keep him on the ground. But no success yet. It was only shortly after that we heard the comforting sound of the joint realigning. I walked off again, but to no avail; although they were six in the room, I was asked to help lift the patient from the floor to his bed. Well, that the drawback of being 30cm taller than most around here...
Then Dr. Rada took me to the ER department to see a trauma patient and after that a strangulated inguinal hernia. It was as hard as a rock and it took a lot of valium, patience, massaging the hernia and perseverance to usher it back into the abdomen.
And thus the femur fracture we were waiting for, started late in the afternoon. Maybe it was out of the kindness of his heart or maybe it was his tiredness or his constant coughing and sniffing but he let me do most of the hard work (drilling, clamping, realigning, more drilling...). On the subject of his "grippe" as he  calls it; I think there are chances it might be TB but since yesterday he mentioned Anthrax, I tend to look away when he coughs... Just to be on the safe side. Anyway after a lot of heavy manual labour, it was pitch dark when I crawled out of the OR. The sight of the three little boys (see pictures earlier) dancing to some pop music renewed my energy and I played with them for a minute. Lifting them over my head, chasing them round the courtyard, ... I'm sure they'll sleep well tonight. I also do remember thinking that their dancing reminded me of Huntington's Chorea which is completely stupid since it's the medical equivalent of seeing a Zebra and thinking "what a coincidence they must be named after the stripey road crossings!"

Anyway it was with a feeling of a good day's work that I cycled to the hotel and along the way I caught myself humming the radiohead song "everything in it's right place"...

Goodnight

L.