Kenya - Day 4 & 5

These two days we visited 2 hospitals - the Nyanza Provincial District Hospital and Kisumu District hospital - to do observations only. Generally, doctor-patient relationship is still very paternalistic, and these hospitals are underfunded in many aspects which turned to be as resourceful possible (e.g. ripping off the end of gloves and used it as torniquet) .

Provincial
I visited the paediatrics ward. Apart from seizures, I saw many kids with Burkit's lymphoma (due to high assocition with Malaria, AIDS, and epstein-barr virus). These kids were around 5-6 years old and had very huge abnormal masses on the neck, body, etc. And at such a young age already they had to suffer from chemotherapy everyday for the next at least 2 years. Despite the a good prognosis in children with Burkitt's, lack of medical supply hampers their recovery progress, aggravated by prevalent malnutrition issues in the community. They looked really frail and emaciated, and they cried a lot when the doctors injected them with medications.

It was a very enriching experience for me, and made really more interested in learning medicine, wanting to find better ways on how things can be cured.

District
Another fulfilling experience, where I get to interesting cases like necrotising fasciatis. Others things include fractures, malaria, tb. In the morning I get to see a doctor suturing a guys head (he had very deep cuts on his head), and I found that to be equally interesting and agonising (esp when the doctor had to apply occasional force to pierce the needle through the skin of his head). Amusing case was a local medical student who was with us suddenly fainted after witnessing this procedure!

We visited the assylum in the afternoon, and I must say I enjoyed myself there dancing and chatting with the patients (few looked really normal). One of them made me (nicely) write my (fake) contact address so that he could write to me. He even gave his address (looked authentic!) so that I could send books to him.