Saturday Night in Petit Guave

Saturday night is when the large majority of Petit Guave residents discovered we were providing medical care. After supper, when we thought we were all done, we heard shouts of "docTOR, docTOR" from some Haitians on the other side of our pharmacy. We arrived to find 3 victims of a motorcycle vs. pedestrian accident. An elderly couple in their 80's had been hit by a young man in his 20's. All three were hauled in either on motorcycles or in the backs of cars. The young man was unresponsive but had stable vital signs, with possible internal abdominal injuries and internal head injuries. Without diagnostic capabilities such as Cat scans and xrays, it's impossible to tell. We decided to give him time and let his injuries "declare" themselves if they were truly present. The elderly lady had a huge hematoma on her head and either a shattered right knee or severe ligamentous injury. Internal head injuries could not be ruled out on her, either. The elderly gentleman had some lacerations that were sutured but no severe injuries.



As we were finishing up with these, a pregnant lady was brought in unconscious. History via interpreter was that she had seizure activity. As we were attempting to start an IV, she started seizing again. This made it impossible to start the IV. We had to give her seizure medication by intramuscular injection. Her blood pressure was high; it was clear she had eclampsia of pregnancy. This can be fatal for mother and baby. We could not pick up fetal heart tones via a doppler monitor, so we assumed baby was already gone. We had no ultrasound to confirm.



At this time we heard shouts and some scuffling outside. Apparently, the relatives of the elderly couple were seeking revenge on the young motorcycle driver. We could not confirm this as the interpreters were gone. By this time a crowd was forming, pressing in on our treatment area and several other patients showed up with some minor complaints. Then two patients with large severe burns arrived. The first was a teenage boy who was wearing a dress because the burns were too painful to wear pants (or maybe his only pair of pants was burned in the fire).


More to come later . . .