The second half of Africa Adventure 2k9 is really hospital intensive. I get up in the morning, ride to the hospital with Dr. Sedute, spend a couple of hours doing rounds in the pediatrics ward, head over to the preemies for a while, and then usually back to peds before we take off for the day. I have pretty much nothing to offer in terms of useful skills but I am learning a ton. I can listen to a chest and hear pneumonia or a heart murmur. I have seen terrible rickets, hugely swollen internal organs, and a giant puss-filled abscess. I am also great at diagnosing and treating mild to severe malaria without a sweat. The sad thing is that we have had four deaths in the last four days. It's extra frustrating because you know that if these kids were someplace better equipped it wouldn't be a problem. This hospital really has nothing. No blood pressure cuffs, no monitors of any sort, very limited medications, no instruments to look into ears or down throats, they can do x-rays (if they have films, which they currently lack) and they can test for HIV but that's about it. Most of the doctors don't even have stethoscopes. It is certainly a whole different world than the hospitals and clinics that anyone in the US is used to.
This is the pediatric ward, intermediate care. Better attention than normal, but not quite the ICU. Just a concrete room with some beds lined up along either wall.
Full ward during rounds. This picture makes it look much cleaner and cheerier than it really is. The paint on the walls is peeling and cracking, the windows are dingy and old, the beds are rusting, and at least twice a day you'll find unwrapped syringes with needles on the ground.
Three patients to a bed is not uncommon. At night all three patients and all three moms will have to find a way to fit together.
The best door label I've seen in a long time.
A nurse and the medicine cabinet on the ward, getting ready to dispense medication for the day.
The ICU. Every morning they kick all of the patients out of the wards so they can clean. They take buckets and splash water on the ground, then wipe it up with old t-shirts because they don't have mops.
Preemies in the NICU. Each little bundle is a brightly wrapped baby in distress.
This is the pediatric ward, intermediate care. Better attention than normal, but not quite the ICU. Just a concrete room with some beds lined up along either wall. 
Full ward during rounds. This picture makes it look much cleaner and cheerier than it really is. The paint on the walls is peeling and cracking, the windows are dingy and old, the beds are rusting, and at least twice a day you'll find unwrapped syringes with needles on the ground.
Three patients to a bed is not uncommon. At night all three patients and all three moms will have to find a way to fit together.
The best door label I've seen in a long time.
A nurse and the medicine cabinet on the ward, getting ready to dispense medication for the day.
The ICU. Every morning they kick all of the patients out of the wards so they can clean. They take buckets and splash water on the ground, then wipe it up with old t-shirts because they don't have mops.
Preemies in the NICU. Each little bundle is a brightly wrapped baby in distress.
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