June 11^th (Monday)

Got up around 6:30am again to the roosters crowing. I took my malaria pill in my oatmeal and am now going to take it at breakfast. It was feeling quite chilly out this morning so I also had some hot cocoa. We walked over to the hospital at 7:30am. I did some of the rounds and then went to the antenatal clinic. I got to listen to a foetal heartbeat. I then returned to Kariba in time for tea. Afterwards, I assisted/did the plastering of a baby and a boy age 2 who had clubfeet and learned about that standard treatment (the Ponsetti method). JR then taught us about a minor surgery kit in the theater. It was then lunchtime and we were invited to Dorothy’s for lunch.

The Spiechingers, Dr. Rodney and Margaret, and Tiffany were all there as well. It was very tasty chicken, sweet potatoes, another root potato/veggie (Makaji, I think), and a mixed veggie dish. We returned home to relax for a while and took our luggage claim papers to Chris and he told us another possible Wi-Fi password to try. So we were finally able to connect to the outside world when the Wi-Fi password was correct. We sent messages to our families.

Tiffany then came by and told us the man from Chavuma had arrived that had a possible bowel obstruction and was going in for surgery after x-rays were taken. We went to assist/participate. It turns out he didn’t have a bowel obstruction but was dehydrated and his sugars were dropping. I assisted with Fiona to keep getting the ringers lactate fluids going in him and holding him down. I was also protecting the IV sites in his neck myself when JR had to leave for a moment. Later he started crashing when we moved him onto a bed off of the x-ray table. I watched as the team resuscitated him and gave him adrenaline and atropine. Nicole was in charge of the ambubag. He recovered and then later his heart rate dropped again and Fiona and I performed CPR, and they administered more atropine and adrenaline and for the second time he was brought back. This happened one more time. Then after further assessment he wasn’t moving much anymore or responding to painful stimuli, nor were his eyes constricting once exposed to the light. The next time his heart rate dropped and breathing was stopping Dr. Mwansa had already said we wouldn’t be giving any more drugs or CPR. JR called time of death. We did quite well in our first situation of performing CPR on an actual human being. We then cleaned him up, wrapped the body, and let the family mourn.

We headed home on the back of a four wheeler as it had gotten dark and we forgot our flashlights. We also missed the first night of the English meetings Gordon is having on the gospel of Luke due to all the excitement at the hospital. When we got to our house we ate some leftovers, debriefed about the experiences today and messaged home (I registered for my courses for next semester) and we had showers (Fiona desperately needed one as she had blood that sprayed on the top of her scrub shirt and probably on her neck/face, but you couldn’t tell). This was due to an IV issue with the patient. Now, to bed we go, tomorrow is a theatre day.//