Today was the last
day in the hospital, which was good. I think I’ve seen just about as much of
that place as I can handle. For now, anyway.
There was some
initial confusion about which doctors the three physicians were going to work
with, with Dr. Patrick being in surgery and nobody really that trilled about
working with the triage physician. Finally, Dr. Lesho bit the bullet and went
with the triage doctor, and both Dr. Mann and I worked with the pediatrician.
Since there weren’t any patients waiting to be seen, we went upstairs for
rounds and saw the kids on the inpatient wards.
After rounds, I
worked with my translator on my presentation about HIV in the US Military, and
then it was time for a tour of the nursing school. It’s a military nursing
school, with most of the students in the military, and a few civilians who pay
tuition. We actually interrupted their finals, which I felt a little bad about.
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| The group outside the nursing school |
The school itself
wasn’t too bad, although outdated. They actually still have an iron lung in the
clinical simulation center, which has got to be the oldest one still around. I
don’t know if it’s still operational or not; somehow, I wouldn’t be surprised.
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| Iron Lung |
After the tour of
the nursing school was lunch, and then we had the last day of academics. We had
two lectures on blood security and blood transfusions, one about the program
and stats at Kitona, and one from LTC Cannon about WHO standards. I was
actually surprised at how robust the program is here—they don’t pay anyone for
donations, which is good, and test every unit of blood for HIV, syphilis,
hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. It’s not nearly as many as we test in the States,
but it meets WHO recommendations, which is always good. They do have a strange
policy where they only transfuse matched blood—an A patient will only get A
blood, etc. I feel sorry for their AB patients. There aren’t many of us out
there.
The third lecture
was about sexually transmitted diseases at Kitona, and then I wrapped up
academics with my presentation about HIV in our military. It actually started
an argument between the hospital commander and the deputy commander of Kitona
Base, who was there to present the completion ceremonies. The hospital
commander asked why all the recruits at Kitona didn’t get tested when they
joined, the way our recruits do (and according to DRC policy, as we learned
yesterday during academics), and the general said that it’s the hospital commander’s
responsibility to do it. There were angry words flying around in French all
over the place, but hopefully they’ll figure something out to get the testing
done.
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| My presentation on HIV in the US Military |
After the awards
ceremony (read: speeches and certificates), we headed back to the hotel, and
then down to New Cliffs restaurant (our usual dinner place) for a final Muanda
dinner. We invited our translators and the hospital commander, and hired a
music/dance group. It was a lot of fun to hear and see traditional music and
dances from Bas Congo, and everyone got up on the dance floor at least once.
Yes, even me, but I really hope there are no pictures of this out there.
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| Dancing |
I gave Lt.
Olivier, my translator, a gift at the end of the night: my Army Medical
Department regimental crest. I brought it with the intention of giving it to
the doctor I worked with, but I didn’t end up forming any sort of bond with any
of the doctors, and Olivier and I got to know each other fairly well. I told
him that it was what American Army doctors wore on their uniforms, and after
translating for me all week, he was practically a doctor and should have it. I
think he appreciated it.
Tomorrow we fly
back to Kinshasa, and then there’s a couple of days of stuff that we have to do
for the embassy before we head home on Friday night.
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| Final group picture in front of the hospital |
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