feb 18th 2011

a few things...

apparantly last weekend a 17 year-old girl died at teh hospital...she had had eclamptic seizures at home after giving birth, and then eventually made it to the hospital...i don't know if when she came in, she was already in a coma and would have died anyway, or if there was lack of care at the hospital...

we have a very sick woman at the hospital right now...an 8/7 (8th pregnancy, 7 previous births) who was brought in from a mobile prenatal clinic that MWH was doing in a community around here...her blood pressure was 240/170--she had all the signs of pre-eclampsia...she was admitted and put on meds but never induced...when we arrived yesterday morning, NOTHING had been done on her since 9pm the night before...her IV lines were dry, no rounds done on her, nothing. so so dissappointing and maddening. so, marthonie and i worked on her all day yesterday, getting meds back in, monitoring her with the students, and inducing her. dopefully, when we arrive this morning, she will have birthed and she will STILL be on B/P meds and anticonvulsive meds (magnesium sulfate).

i have been taking care for the past couple of days of a woman who was beat up in the street by her husband's ex-girlfriend and some man (her brother?). they waited for her as she was coming out of the market. they beat her with a stick and then when she was on the ground they kicked her in teh stomach. she is 30 weeks pregnant.
when she came in to the hospital 3 days ago, she was covered in dirt and sticks and was having contractions. she is totally depressed and not eating or drinking. i gave her an IV and then the next morning, yesterday morning, i see that the IV is dry and no one ever replaced it. so she only got 500 cc's of fluid. she started having contractions again yesterday afternoon as i was leaving the hospital, and i asked a staff MW to check on her and start an IV again...when i came back 2 hours later, no IV was in, but they HAD given her amoxicillin. why? so, i put in an IV. have been talking alot with her and her family about eating drinking resting to prevent preterm labor. her baby won't make it here if it is born now. she is just totally depressed. they arrested her husband, instead of the people who beat her up, and now it will be hard to get him out of jail, even though he's not guilty.
i offered her to listen to the FHT's (bb's heartbeat) yesterday with my fetoscope. she listened. i sat there holding it in place for her for like 20 minutes, and then put her hand on it to hold it so i could go do something else. she must have listened for like 45 minutes total. that was good.

i feel so much empathy for ehr. i feel so bad for her, that she was attacked and beaten by these fucked up people. she will probably be there today when we go. i may give her some money. i don't think she really has money to eat, because her husband is in jail.

i guess that's all for now. there's alot more of stuff that goes on at the hospital but i can't write everything.

in general things here are going well. in the household. however it's alot of work also, to manage and maintain everything.

love you guys...
reina