Hi everyone and welcome to our latest Blog
We have previously written about things that we take for
granted, such as electrical power and hot water. There is also something which
all hospitals in the UK will have, either piped through the walls or via cylinders,
and that’s oxygen. Here in Chad it’s not something that we have access too at
Guinebor II hospital, instead we use an oxygen concentrator. This is a machine
that is commonly used in the UK for people with respiratory conditions to use
in their homes. Until recently we were fortunate to have 2, one for the
operating theatre the other to be used on the wards. Unfortunately this one was
already damaged before it arrived at the hospital as it fell off the conveyor
belt at the airport on arrival, cracking the plastic casing. Despite this it
had worked well plugged into a small generator. There have been times when we
have had to split the oxygen 3 ways to accommodate 3 children all needing
oxygen at the same time. However at the beginning of May both the generator and
concentrator broke down for the final time, which leads us to explain about our
last weekend on call.
A baby was delivered on the Saturday morning and required
oxygen. The baby was moved into the recovery area of the operating block and
the main generator started so that oxygen could be administered via the
concentrator, so all good so far. The problem is that due to the intense heat
and dust the generator can only be run for a maximum of 5 hours before needing
to be turned off and rested, particularly as the temperature was well over 40c.
Fortunately the baby’s oxygen levels improved during the day which allowed us
to turn the generator off for the required 2 hours. As evening approached the
babies oxygen levels started to dip again which meant it needed it to go back
onto the oxygen and remain so overnight. This meant that after a further 5 hours it would be the early hours of the morning, but as the baby would require
continuous oxygen throughout the night a solution was needed as it would not be possible
to stop for 2 hours to rest the generator. Malc spoke with the builders
working on the new maternity building and asked to borrow their small generator
for a few hours to help with the situation. Thankfully the guard agreed, even
performing maintenance on it prior to handing it over, to ensure we wouldn’t
get any issues in the middle of the night.
So we retired to bed, setting the alarm for 1:30 am so we
could get up and swap the generators over, checking that this had no adverse
effect on the baby’s oxygen levels. This all went well and our own guards were
shown how to swap it back again after a further 2 hours. The following morning
when assessing the baby the good news was that she was now capable of maintaining
good levels of oxygen without the machine and was able to go home with the
mother the following day.
Thankfully since then, the teenage bible study group here
have held a sponsored litter pick in the Guinebor village, no easy task, to
raise money for the hospital. Their great efforts has raised enough funds to
buy a new machine which we hope to take delivery of from the UK in the next few
weeks. We have also managed to acquire enough funding to replace the failed
generator with one that can run for 6-8 hours without a break, to power the oxygen concentrator. However until that time we will have to continue to rely on the good
will of our builders, or others, and suffer broken nights sleep.
Thank you all for your continued support
Blessings
Malc & Sue