It is too bad when something as unique and exciting as a Cholera Clinic can become routine! Not that it is ever boring, but sometimes I look around and wonder what else there is to write about dumping buckets, giving drinks, and mopping floors. But even the most routine and ordinary of days can suddenly transform when a stretcher shows up at the gate!
This happened on one of our recent day shifts. Our team had done most of what needed done, no IV's were in danger of running dry, the buckets were recently dumped and we were standing on the porch chatting when someone yelled, "Look out! Here they come." The place immediately looked like a war zone. One of the guards grabbed his spray bottle and ran for the gate, the other one grabbed his spray bottle and ran to refill it, the "partially sick" people in the observatory tent came running to the door, and all available caretakers were instantly out on the porch. An assorted group of about a dozen people walked in, surrounding the four men carrying a stretcher on their shoulders. This they lowered to the ground, untying the lady on it and helping her to sit up as they chattering excitedly, each one giving his version of her illness. By this time I had an anti-vomiting pill ready and a bottle of ORS. Thea took the pill and tried to give it to the lady as she started groaning. The more Thea tried forcing the pill in her mouth the more the lady increased her groaning. The men around her began making worried noises, sure she was dying. Instead she spewed - vomiting all over Thea's hand, drenching the pill, her own clothes and the stretcher. We gave up the pill idea till later and took her directly to the little black tent where Virginia and I sprayed her down and dressed her in a hospital gown. Of course she could barely stand on her own and a grown lady is no light weight - especially when slippery wet! But we successfully got her onto a cot and an IV started.
The end of that story is that she went home today - bright, lively and happy!
Of course no two days are ever the same, sometimes we get a couple people only moderately sick and sometimes we get several on stretchers and sometimes no one comes at all. But no matter what, it is rewarding, challenging, faith stretching and mostly fun!
This happened on one of our recent day shifts. Our team had done most of what needed done, no IV's were in danger of running dry, the buckets were recently dumped and we were standing on the porch chatting when someone yelled, "Look out! Here they come." The place immediately looked like a war zone. One of the guards grabbed his spray bottle and ran for the gate, the other one grabbed his spray bottle and ran to refill it, the "partially sick" people in the observatory tent came running to the door, and all available caretakers were instantly out on the porch. An assorted group of about a dozen people walked in, surrounding the four men carrying a stretcher on their shoulders. This they lowered to the ground, untying the lady on it and helping her to sit up as they chattering excitedly, each one giving his version of her illness. By this time I had an anti-vomiting pill ready and a bottle of ORS. Thea took the pill and tried to give it to the lady as she started groaning. The more Thea tried forcing the pill in her mouth the more the lady increased her groaning. The men around her began making worried noises, sure she was dying. Instead she spewed - vomiting all over Thea's hand, drenching the pill, her own clothes and the stretcher. We gave up the pill idea till later and took her directly to the little black tent where Virginia and I sprayed her down and dressed her in a hospital gown. Of course she could barely stand on her own and a grown lady is no light weight - especially when slippery wet! But we successfully got her onto a cot and an IV started.
The end of that story is that she went home today - bright, lively and happy!
Of course no two days are ever the same, sometimes we get a couple people only moderately sick and sometimes we get several on stretchers and sometimes no one comes at all. But no matter what, it is rewarding, challenging, faith stretching and mostly fun!
-Karen Wolf
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