Lake side Clinic

This Story….

Last Friday (April 22) was an interesting day at the ER. We admitted a 32-year-old female patient who was exhibiting lower abdominal pains. She seemed to be in excruciating pain and was very restless. A urine pregnancy test was positive so the attending suspected possible ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Her initial blood pressure was nil (indicating severe hypotension) but rose to 80/58mmHg after 2.5 L of fluids. Further assessment confirmed the diagnosis and so the decision was made to take her in for an emergency exploratory laparoscopy. As the team prepared for the surgery, the maternity and baby unit caught fire (electrical cause). This resulted in chaos as patients and staff began running for their lives. The fire was quickly contained and extinguished. Thankfully, no one was harmed.

Due to the electrical cause of the fire, we decided to transfer the patient to the “big” hospital in Kumasi. She was quickly loaded onto the ambulance and driven to Kumasi. She was supposed to have been taken to the A-1 surgical room at this hospital. However, we were told on arrival that there wasn’t any electrical power to perform the surgery at A-1. So, they redirected us to a different unit hoping that they will have some form of electricity to get this surgery underway. Of course, the patient was still bleeding internally and in unimaginable pain as this whole shuffling was taking place. As we prepared to put her back on the ambulance and drive to the other unit, the stretcher broke down and could not be put back in the ambulance in a proper manner for transport.  So, we lifted the patient with the stretcher and put her in the ambulance and held on tightly. Normally, stretchers lay flat in the ambulance with the patient laying on it and strapped in for safety. That was not the case with this situation.

At this critical point, the ambulance also broke down. The driver couldn’t reverse or move forward. So we solicited the assistance of some bystanders to help push the ambulance around. Luckily, it started back up and we drove quickly while holding on to the unlocked stretcher and the patient. It felt like a roller coaster. Thankfully, we arrived at the other unit safely and transferred the patient to another surgical room. As she was being assessed for surgery, the electrical power at this location also went out. The electricity availability fluctuated for about 30 minutes. During this time, the medical team was also searching for an anesthesiologist because the guy on duty was done for the day and had left the hospital.

Thankfully, after what seemed like eternity, an anesthesiologist was found and the patient was finally prepped for her emergency surgery. We left and came back to our location once she was taken into surgery. We called later to check up on her and were told that surgery went well and she was stable and in the recovery unit.

We also learned that as this patient and her husband traveled to our hospital, the hood of his car came open obstructing his view and they almost got into a wreck with a semi. He was able swerve just in time, avoided a collision with the semi and they ended up in a ditch. We learned about this when we got back from Kumasi.

We are very thankful for God ‘s favor and protection on this couple...