Broken Bones on My Last Day

At 4:30pm, it looked like OPD was wrapping up another typical day in Nongoma. Then a flood of ~10 patients rolled in from a minibus accident, transforming the OPD into the ER. Skull fractures, vertebrae fractures, hip fractures - everything fractures -, facial lacerations, leg lacerations, back laceration, - everything lacerations – jammed onto wheelchairs and stretchers. Unfortunately our ortho surgeon, who is our only surgeon, was unavailable and thus emergent surgery was not an option. With some blood stains on my rolled-up sleeved white coat, we cleaned the lacerations, threw some sutures, put up fluids, fired up the x-ray machine, and made phone calls to referral hospitals.

By 8pm, the chaos settled into a few moans, marking the end of my topsy-turvy clinical work at Saint Benedictine. What more can I say other than “This is life in Nongoma.”