Saturday, March 1, 2008

Viewer Discretion Strongly Advised


I do struggle with how many pictures to show you of my work. I know many of you viewing this blog are not doctors, although a fair number are training to be doctors. This is the work that I do. I get strongly conflicting feedback either requesting more pictures or no pictures. So I apologize. I am trying to edit what graphic material I do post.

This is a baby who was burned, but I'm not sure by what. Burns are frequent here. This child does not represent the typical story, which is walking onto fire. People burn their trash here, and often dig pits to put the trash in, then burn it. A child may see something they want, not realizing it is a deep fire pit and then burn his/her feet. The worst is then as the child panics, they put their hands down in the fire, or worse yet is when they start sinking into it. This child is being prepped for a skin graft. You might note, that we are not in an operating theater for this procedure, it's simply a procedure room they'll do the graft in.
This is an incision and drainage of a knee, I'm performing. That is all pus that you see in the bowl being held under the knee. Basically, we put a needle in and aspirate, if we get pus, then we make an incision and attempt to drain all the pus out, pack it, give antibiotics, and send them back to the wards to be monitored. It's amazing how much pus we have gotten out of some of these wounds.

4 comments:

cathygopacers said...

Biffy, you're doing a great job, both at the Medical center and on your blog. Just keep doing what you're doing and people can skip what they don't want to see. We in the US are so insulated that we need a dose of reality like what you are showing us. Keep up the great work. We are praying for you!

niedz said...

Biffy-thanks for the info on the snakes-it was great.

Uncle paul

Anonymous said...

biffy, i love all the pictures.the more the better for me. it is all so interesting. my mom and dad come home from florida this weekend and i know they both will be so impressed with all you are doing!!keep up the awesome job on your blog. i love it . how long are you out there??? diane belcher

ESK123 said...

I'm here for 2 months