Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The "nice" season

One of the language teachers in Kathmandu says that there are 5 seasons in Nepal. There is the cold and dry season, the cold and wet season, the hot and humid season, and the hot and rainy season. And then there is the "nice" season, which, sadly, is the shortest season in Nepal. We THINK the monsoon is done now and we are into said "nice" season, though we were again hit with rain a few days ago. But most of the time, the skies are clear and it is sunny and beautiful. We are seeing the mountain peaks again, though certainly not every day. It's still quite hazy. We're hoping things will clear up even more in a week or two. In the meantime, we certainly are grateful for the drier weather!

The blue skies and mountain views are starting to come back!
We are also coming into festival season. Nepal's 2 biggest Hindu festivals come almost back-to-back in October and early November. Dashain...the biggest festival...is coming up next week and lasts 5 days. Tihar comes for 3 days in early November. During these festivals the whole country is shut down...including almost all the hospitals! Which means that we will likely get all the emergencies in the area, as people will have nowhere else to go. We won't be doing any clinics or elective surgeries for a few days - nobody wants to be in hospital during festival season. As far as important festivals go, it's the Christmas of Nepal. (As a side note, in contrast to this season, Christmas is really a minor occasion for most people here...it was only declared a national holiday a couple years ago, and most don't celebrate it. We will have Christmas Day off work but otherwise the hospital will run as usual)

Because of the upcoming festivals the hospital has slowed down a bit. Fewer people are coming to clinics for non-urgent problems, and most people ask to have their surgery scheduled after the festivals are done. We still have our share of emergencies, though, and the pediatrics ward, in particular, remains swamped from all the late-monsoon illnesses (typhoid, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, meningitis, etc).

One of the pediatric patients "namaste"-ing me in clinic
On another note, I (Jessica) have decided that there are few injuries that are worse than electric burns. I wrote about Sonu a few months ago. Hers was by far the most extensive and devastating of the injuries we've seen recently, and she eventually succumbed to them. But we've had several other bad ones, and each time I see them I find myself angry that these injuries happen with such regularity, and to young people. Recently I cared for a 27-year-old young man, an electrician, who was handling wires when something happened and he was shocked. He lost his right arm, up to midway between his elbow and his shoulder. He has a wife and a child, and probably won't be able to do electrician's work again. He had the most incredible attitude of any patient I have ever cared for, I think...much better than I would have had in his situation. Because of this, I really enjoyed seeing him every morning on rounds, but his right arm stump was a constant reminder of the tragedy he had suffered.

Then there is a 10-year-old boy currently in hospital who also suffered an electric burn. How does a 10-year-old get a bad electric burn? Well, if you saw the complete jumble of electrical wires that we see around Nepal, you might not find it such a surprise. He was climbing a wall and grabbed a wire, and was frozen to the wire for almost 1 minute before he was released from it. His right hand immediately was in a "frozen" position, never again to move. We had to amputate his right arm all the way up to his shoulder. He also has severe wounds on his abdomen and chest, which will need to be grafted. Thankfully he's doing quite well, but his life will never be the same.

This morning there was another patient who had arrived...a young man in his 30s. I don't know his story, but I do know that he has huge, very deep wounds in his chest and going through to his back, as well as in both hands. We are hopeful that he will be able to keep his hands, and that his heart and chest haven't suffered too much damage from the electric shock. Time will tell.

I would sure love to see some prevention going on as far as electricity is concerned, but I'm not even sure where you would start. In the meantime, we continue to see these devastating injuries, and I am grieved every time. It's hard to make sense of it all sometimes, but I am grateful for the chance to care for these ones, and pray that in the midst of their suffering they would come to know the God who loves them and cares for them far more than we ever could.


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