First Day in the Hospital

Monday June 5

We woke up and had breakfast in our house then left in Bolt cars, arriving around 9:45. We went on a tour of the hospital and saw all the wards- it is not super huge but there are multiple stories surrounding a courtyard, and a wide variety of types of wards. We saw the ER (which functions more as an ICU here and is the only one with AC), the physiotherapy ward that does therapy for kids with disabilities, the two floors of the general ward, the malnutrition ward, the outpatient wards, the HIV clinic, the family planning clinic, the child welfare unit, the surgery ward, and more. We also saw the kitchen that makes lunch every day for the doctors, nurses, and students. We met some of the doctors briefly, too. There were lots of families at the hospital and the outpatient sitting areas were very crowded. Lots of kids stared at us as we walked around. We were all wearing masks and were really hot and sweaty walking all around as it was almost the hottest part of the day. Here are pics of the hospital building and the surrounding view of the hospital.

Then we got assigned our rotations. I was assigned to physiotherapy the first week and malnutrition the second week. I hope to be able to see more of the public health-type wards in the last two weeks, or possibly even go to a maternal care unit at a different site.

One of my roommates has the same rotation schedule as me. We went to the physiotherapy ward, which was a room with play mats on the floor.

We were instructed to take our shoes off and sit down and we spent a few hours observing all the different stretches and exercises the nurses did for the kids, as well as entertaining the siblings of the kids. Mondays are when kids with cerebral palsy come in; they would do stretches and then put the kids in large braces that made them stand upright. There was lots of crying the whole time. The mothers all sat in front of each kid the whole time, helping and distracting them with toys or cocomelon videos on their phones. The kids were aged maybe 5 months- 6 years and about 15 came through in the morning. Most of the nurses, doctors, and mothers spoke in Twi the whole time so I wasn’t quite sure what was happening so I was mainly observing. The room didn’t have AC but it was pretty cool with fans.

All the kids were worn wrapped on their mother's backs to and from the ward. The wraps were used in lots of ways, not only for carrying on their back, but also as a wrap skirt when the baby came off, or put on the floor for the baby to crawl on. The youngest baby was crawling around and cried when he was crawling onto me, I couldn’t quite understand but the nurse said something about him maybe being afraid of my skin. 

All the patients finished by around 12:30 so then we went to lunch. They gave us chicken and rice (I think it was jollof rice) in to-go containers. We thought all our peers were still in their wards so we went to eat outside on some steps but then one of the kitchen staff came to get us to tell us we could eat in the kitchen so we went up and ate. 

We then went with Roland, our coordinator, to exchange money. We walked about 5 minutes down the street from the hospital to a street market and waited outside one of the shops. We were really hot as we were in the direct sun and the temp was in the 80s but the weather app said it felt like 96 with the humidity. The man Roland knew came but others also came and argued; I think trying to get us to exchange with them. But. then they went away and we exchanged the money. We went back and waited for everyone, I was really hot and I was out of my water so I started to feel a little faint. Finally, everyone finished their rotations and we got a Bolt car back to the house, on this ride the driver went the wrong way down a one-way street. We then took a couple hour nap (we were exhausted from just the morning at the hospital) then Dr. Charles (the main doctor) came to give us a lecture on the hospital.

It’s 97 years old and serves primarily low-income families. He noted some cultural differences we may experience, like being talked to more openly than you would with superiors in the US, and he also noted that patients can’t sue which he said is less pressure for the doctors.

There was a small gecko on our living room ceiling which apparently eat mosquitos. I’ve only had one mosquito bite so far, on my toe. 

We then went out to a nicer Italian restaurant with Dr. Charles and a house officer (the equivalent of a resident doctor I believe). We had several family-style dishes including calamari, pizza, and cheese bread. At the end, Dr. Charles ordered fireball shots for everyone (although this tasted more spicy than normal fireball apparently). I only took half and gagged.

We then went back and I discussed some of what my roommates saw in the day, things are very different than in the US, for example, they don’t have a lab and don’t do blood work even for TB patients.

We then went to bed. Today apparently one of the other program participants had her phone stolen when she was in a car with the window down.