More Burns

Friday 15 August

This last week I’ve been on St. Agnes, the pediatric surgical ward. At least one full room of kids are all burn patients. One of the nurses told me that she thinks it’s mainly due to congestion. I thought she meant like nasal congestion, but clearly that’s not what she meant. She went on to explain that there are many people living in small spaces. So there are boiling pots of water and oil and the like with toddlers running around all in the same space. Naturally burns occur frequently.

These kids are troopers. They don’t get any pre-meds and we scrub on their little bodies and open flesh with iodine and cotton and gauze and the like. Ouchie. Needless to say, it’s a bit difficult to dress wounds on some of these small ones…they’re wriggling and fighting and kicking and screaming. But some of them stay really quiet, it’s quite amazing really. This week I got to dress some of their burns and I really enjoyed doing it. I mean, to most of you who aren’t nurses, that probably sounds really cruel, maybe even to some of you who are nurses. But seeing the daily progressing and healing of the wounds is really amazing, and being able to do something with my hands to help these kids get better is really great. Looking to find the parts that needing sloughing a bit more and which parts were dirty and needing a bit more cleaning, the art of reapplying the Vaseline gauze in just the right way so that it will last until the next day, but not waste too much…I’m really fascinated by the process and glad to be a part.

One girl who was hit by a taxi or a car a week or so ago, had her foot crushed. In surgery they took off what seemed like about the top ½ of her foot. When I was in the room while she was getting her dressing changed one day, she yelled “Mama muzungu….mama muzungu…” and that was after she called out to Allah and said the Hail Mary I think…she was appealing to anyone who might help get her out of there. Her 20 minutes in the treatment room is her least favorite 20 minutes of the day I’m pretty sure. I don't blame her.