UNDUE SUFFERING

Today was a very challenging day in the clinic.

A young boy of about 15 came to the clinic with an infected cut on his middle finger of his left hand. He had been pricked by a sewing needle 5 days before and ignored the intensifying signs of infection. He presented with a very swollen hand and cut that was oozing puss filled blood at a steady rate. Mike inspected the wound and decided it required suturing and preferably needed general anesthesia, but the boy would not be seen at the Regional Referral Hospital today as it was too late in the day, so Mike had to make due with the local anesthesia at his disposal and make the best of it. Mike scrubbed in and injected the area with local anesthetics. After giving it time to absorb, he began cleaning the wound. I stayed only through the initial phases of the minor surgery because the boy's suffering was too hard for me to endure.

The only other time I have witnessed such agony was in the labor and delivery ward at the Baragwaneth Public Hospital in South Africa, by women who also did not have the quality and supply of anesthetics we have in the States. It is the disparity in available health services, such as adequate anesthetics, between the States and Africa that becomes more than I can bear. I feel intensely frustrated by the undue suffering that must be endured as a result of lack of resources and an understaffed, overstretched medical system that cannot treat the number of critical patients. Days like today open my eyes to the harsh reality that patients face in Africa everyday.

The underlying reason for the boys agony was his lack of knowledge on what an infection looks and feel like and the importance of seeking medical attention at the first signs of an infection. Even if he had simply known that after being cut by a rusty object it is critical to properly disinfect, clean and maintain the area, this whole ordeal would have been avoided. Lack of health education rests on insufficient public health measures. As Benjamin Franklin said," An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This is a reality that is undervalued and overlooked too often.

I have been considering getting my MD/MPh for a while now, and I believe that today God showed me just how useful it is to arm myself with the knowledge of public health, especially in Africa where many people simply do not have access to affordable healthcare. Yes, I will medically treat as many patients as possible during my visits to Uganda, but I must leave behind preventative measures, such as health education, health promotion and policy changes, or I have only put a Band-Aid on their problem.