Today marked a tragedy for our small town and our hospital as well as for our district. Isaac Dokurugu was a 40 year old fellow who started out working for our hospital in the early 90’s. Later Isaac moved on to become an environmental sanitation worker and a district assemblyman as well-this would be kind of like being on the county board of supervisors or the town council, only the assembly is a much larger group, made up of representatives from all over our district. Monday or Tuesday Isaac was riding his motorcycle in Chereponi, 35 miles north of here, when a child crossed the road right in front of him. To save the child, Isaac took to the ditch, breaking his left femur (thigh bone) in the process. The Chereponi Medical Assistant gave Isaac Diclofenac, a medicine similar to Motrin, and at Isaac’s family’s request, took him to a local bone setter in a village just at the outskirts of Saboba. I had no idea Isaac had been injured until last night when his uncle came to inform me that Isaac was vomiting blood. When I reached the dark filthy hut where Isaac was staying, he had something far more seriously wrong with him than some bleeding from his stomach. Isaac couldn’t breathe. We grabbed him, slung him into the car, and raced back to the hospital. Isaac, it developed, was an asthmatic whose asthma would be particularly bad during harmattan, the season we are in right now, when dust from the Sahara swirls down over all of West Africa. Yesterday the harmattan was incredibly thick, casting a haze in the 100 yards between the inpatient wards and the outpatient department at our hospital. Femur fractures are notoriously tricky in that patients can throw blood clots to the lungs or fat emboli from bone marrow released into the patient’s blood stream. Then there is the question of whether or not Isaac had a chest wall/ lung bruise during the accident.
When we reached the hospital, I immediately put Isaac on oxygen using a donated oxygen concentrator. I also started antibiotics, steroids, and Aminophylline. None of it did any good. Isaac’s condition steadily deteriorated during the night and he went into respiratory arrest at 11 AM. We worked the code for more than 20 minutes before calling it quits. 15 years ago I did a hernia operation on Isaac. I remember when Isaac got married, when he had his first child. All the time I worked on Isaac, he kept thanking me. All he asked me to do was to save his life. I couldn’t do it. I know Isaac knew Jesus. I know I will see him in heaven. Right now that is no comfort. Isaac left a wife and children, 5 brothers and his parents. I can’t believe that someone so vital is dead so suddenly, even though I am fully aware of the dangers of pulmonary emboli. Would things have been different if Isaac had come to us? At least he would have been in a cleaner environment, one where his asthma would not have been such an issue. But environmental cleanliness has no effect on pulmonary emboli and there is nothing that we have that will dissolve fat particles.
Right now we feel like super balls that have been thrown against a wall, only to go “splat!” rather than to bounce. We are waiting for one of our pastor friends to finish a church board meeting so that he can come pray with us. At times like this, the only way to salvage such a situation is to intensively study it so that we can save the next patient. Pray that we learn everything that we can so that we will be able to prevent future tragedies.
Victory in Jesus!
Dr. Jean for the Youngs
“For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28
Phones: (Jean) 011-233-244-444387; 233-27-3480408;011-233-20-4934208
Bob: 011-233-244-996692;011-233-27-3481533; 011-233-20-5746206
PO Box 29
Saboba, N/R
Ghana, West Africa
Web Sites: Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/servant24-7/
http://www.ourchurch.com/member/s/Serving_Ghana/
http://www.sabobamedicalcentre.net
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