Stories From The Battle Front: Dr. Eunice Adei
I’ve just read this article on Ghanaweb.com and even though I am working in the middle of all this, when I see it written out like this it really brings tears to my eyes. When you’re working under certain conditions you can’t really sit down and think about the situation too much or you’ll just quit. I have been at the point of exhaustion so many times and I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve just wanted to pack my bags and never come back. The picture painted by the journalist was pretty accurate, but in all honesty things can get worse than that.
I worked at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) that the journalist visited where there were 27 discharged babies who were still being ‘detained’ because their bills weren’t paid from August till December last year. It’s a new unit which opened in September. I cannot begin to describe the conditions before the new unit was opened so I won’t try. I’m to be sent back there next week for another 2 months. I know it seems almost inhumane to keep the discharged children there, but if we don’t find a way to generate money to be able to maintain the place and replace all the fancy gadgets we use, the place will be run-down in a few months. We are severely severely short staffed and there can be weeks at a time when my family may see me awake for a grand total of less than 48 hours. We also see neonates in very bad states because of the shortage of theatre space and staff at the maternity unit. Mother’s who need emergency caesareans sometimes have to wait for more than 24 hours before the surgery is done and the children that are then brought to us are already half dead.
The situation at the main children’s ward is pretty difficult too. The so-called emergency room has not changed since about the mid 1970’s (please, this is NOT a joke), and you can imagine the increase in Accra’s population since then. Recently one of our consultant surgeons entered the ER and commented that the place looked exactly the same as it did when he was a house-officer - even the nurses looked the same. We have space for about 20 children (even that is an over-estimate) but at times we have 60 children crammed into that small space. We can have 4 children lying on one bed, or children on IV fluids spending the night on their parents laps. In one night we can sometimes admit up to 14 children, most of them very ill. We can only send patients up to the wards when we have space available so when things are really hectic in the emergency room we try to discharge as many patients as possible from upstairs to make room. So if a child is recovering, let’s say from pneumonia, but is otherwise stable we may discharge them a few days earlier than is ideal. Sometimes when you are on night duty you will not sit down or close your eyes for even a minute. If you’re lucky you may get about 2 hours of sleep.
Another problem we have is that because of the shortage of doctors there are not enough doctors with paediatric experience in the peripheral hospitals and clinics so they tend to refer many cases to us. Also paediatric cases are sometimes badly handled and the child will eventually end up with us in a really awful state. Also, because parents know that they’ll have to pay cash if they bring their children to hospital they tend to wait until things get really bad before bringing them in. We have had children with malaria brought in convulsing with Hbs of 2g/dl (that means that they have so little red blood cells left that the colour of their blood is yellow with a hint of pink.) I can’t count the number of children who have died in front of me while we have been transfusing them with blood. It can be so frustrating because if they had arrived just a few hours earlier they would be alive.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. When you’re not exhausted, the work can be very rewarding, and our colleagues are great. There are now some attempts to improve things. They renovated 2 of the 3 main wards about a year and a half ago and the 3rd is currently being renovated. There are plans to finally pull down the current ER and build a new one but I don’t think even a third of the money needed has been realised. They are now building new offices and lecture halls on the 2nd floor (talk about priorities!) so that when that is done and the consultant offices are moved from the ground floor upstairs they will then essentially tear down the ground floor to make space for the new emergency room and outpatients department. We started a Child Health Foundation and recently a new NICU fund which aims to raise money to improve the current situation. If people are interested, part of the money we raise could go into that. It could also go into what we call the Needy Fund. When patients are unable to pay f or lets say lab investigations, or cannot afford to buy an expensive antibiotic to treat their child with meningitis we collect money from this fund to help them out. However the needy fund money ran out some time last year. Well that’s a little something about the situation at the moment. Any way you can help out will really be much appreciated.
Thanks for caring.
Eunice
Our Wish list
- Pulse Oximeters - to monitor oxygen saturation levels of ill kids.
- Nasal Prongs - to deliver oxygen to hypoxic kids (at the moment we are using feeding tubes)
- Ambubags and Facemasks - for resuscitation
- A Bilirubinometer - for measuring serum bilirubin levels in jaundiced babies. Our lab is always giving us funky results.
- Sheets, feeding utensils, diapers for babies, new cribs, mattress pads
2 comments so far...
I have been seriously touched by the article and generally what the Korlebu Family Funds stands for. I live in Oostende, Belgium and I have in the past made some donations of cash and food items to the Childrens ward, Korlebu, Accra. I am presently organizing a Charitable movement here in Belgium to assist the poor and needy children in Ghana, particularly in Accra. I would therefore be grateful if you could acknowledge this note of comments and also list out your needs as well as areas of cooperation that will mutually benefit this good cause. Keep up the good work and God Bless.
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