The Day of Big News

Day 22- Big News and Bad News

This morning we sat in with the pediatrician. She is really lovely and is happy to have us observe and ask questions. We saw some colds and flus and a young girls with hepatitis A. We only have Hepatitis A rarely in indigenous communities in Australia. So we had never seen this before.
It seems that in South America paediatricians see many patients that GP's would see in Australia. They are an all-round children's doctor not necessarily a specialist in the way we would define it.

That afternoon we rode again with Dr Romer to Viedma Hospital. Once again there was nothing organised for us to do. We were taken on a tour of the hospital by a senior doctor. He was so proud of the 3 year old hospital and its "state-of-the-art" equipment. We were shocked when we found out it was only 3 years old. It looked older than any hospital I had seen in Australia. I assume that they used all old building materials and much of their equipment is donated second hand from the states. We passed a bunch of interns who were typing documents up on typewriters!!! Yes typewriters! We couldn't believe it.
At the end of the tour he took us to the infectious disease ward, the last standing part of the old hospital...which I later realised was probably full of patient with TB. Cough! Cough! We suddenly realised why he was so proud of the "new" hospital! This ward was falling to pieces it was dank and dark and the patient's rooms were prehistoric. I was really saddened to see patient's who would have been so unwell forced to live in these horrible conditions. One young man peered out from his room his face hollowed out, the skin stretched over his prominent cheek bones, his sunken eyes watching our every move. An outcast he was probably suffering the last stages of TB or AIDs alone banished to this crumbling ward.

This time Dr Romer made sure to organise a time for us to go to the ED and do a shift. It was decided that we would be dropped at the hospital at 5pm Friday and picked up the next morning. This is going to be an epic night but hopefully we will see some cool stuff!!

Today a number of people confided in us about really big issues. I don't know if it is because we are not directly in their circumstances and have an outsiders perspective or if we are just the 3 gringa girls who won't be here long so why does it matter. I was amazed that they trusted us enough to share their concerns but at the same time it is difficult to be put in a situation where you know too much.

We also found out today that the girl who was meant to be arriving in a few weeks time has been declared dead. Prior to her departure from Canada she and her boyfriend went hiking. They had just two days rations with them. They have apparently been missing for over a month. However, it was only a few days ago that they were officially declared dead.
This was such a shock to us. She had been the topic of much excited conversation in the guest house recently. We were eager to have a new acquaintance in our home. It was very difficult to comprehend and although we didn't know her at all it was very upsetting. We had been expecting her. She was meant to become part of our life here. It is such a tragedy when young people die in completely preventable circumstances. Her family must be experiencing such terrible grief. I can't even imagine how difficult it must of been to tell HOH that she wouldn't be coming. They would have had to speak finality into a situation where they had no closure. We need to remember to pray for them.