UNUSUAL RUSH

It has been quite unusually busy at NJH over the last week. Usually, work is quite light after the Dusserha celebrations start and continues on like that for almost the whole of winter – except for the cataract surgeries.

Unfortunately, I have to away from hospital attending work related to the Golden Jubilee celebrations scheduled towards the last week of this month. Yesterday (Friday), the business was quite evident as I was away in Ranchi attending to work. And the situation would remain such for almost the whole of next month.

It all started with the theatre where Dr Nandamani had posted couple of surgeries, one of them a cholecystectomy. He was only halfway into the surgery when he was informed about a pregnant lady with the babies’ hand prolapsed per vagina and baby was alive. Somehow, he rushed through the rest of the surgery and got the lady posted for an emergency cesarian section to deliver a healthy baby.

Immediately afterwards came a rupture uterus. It was again a very peculiar rupture uterus as the uterus had ruptured in the posterior wall and the rupture extended upto the vagina. It is quite a difficult surgery and he was the Lord’s graciousness that he realized halfway into the suturing up of the uterus that he had unwittingly ligatured the ureter.

Dr Nandamani told me that it was one of the most difficult of rupture uteruses that he had operated on for quite a long time.

While the rupture uterus was going on – in came a previous cesarian in full fledged labour. Everybody was quite relieved to find out the lady was in second stage and she had an uneventful normal delivery.

However, one of the major reasons for the hectic time in the hospital is because of one young girl, SK with history of bite by an unknown creature. – we had presumed that it was a viper as her clotting time was prolonged. She had gone into compartment syndrome and in addition had developed renal failure. Since the last couple of days, she started to have episodes of breathlessness which we ultimately diagnosed to be pulmonary edema.

Many a time, the girl’s parents wanted to get her discharged and take her home. The reason was that they did not have any money. Considering that she is from the nearby village, we agreed to treat her free. She is on the ventilator and maintaining a good urinary output.

I have a feeling that she has developed some amount of myocarditis secondary to the venom and we may be dealing with some other venomous creature bite. Kindly pray that SK will recover fast.

In addition, there have been umpteen numbers of malaria and other cases of acute febrile illness which has come in.

To top up things, there was one maternal death. The lady was in the early part of the 3^rd trimester. And she had developed fever. She was on treatment elsewhere. Later, she developed jaundice. That was when they decided to bring her to NJH. On arrival, she was quite sick. Her blood smear showed hoards of malaria parasite and the platelet count was only 16,000. We asked the relatives to take her to Ranchi. They were too poor. No blood could be arranged. She died sometime around midnight.

I’m not complaining. We are here to serve. But, sometimes we feel that we would be better off with some more fresh expert hands joining ours. With the Golden Jubilee celebrations approaching and the expected arrival of a new baby in Dr Johnson’s family, if we continue to have such a patient flow in the hospital, we know that we are going in for a tough time.

Opportunity to be a part of us

Today morning, as I reached ACU, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that unless we have more qualified, dedicated and sincere staff, we could be getting burnt out any day. The forthcoming Golden Jubilee celebrations make things all the more tough.

So, whom do we need?

1. Lady medical officers: Preferably freshly passed out MBBS graduates who are willing to learn to rough it out. Preference would be for people from the North Indian or North East India who are looking forward to do a post-graduation in Pediatrics or Obstetrics.
2. Consultant in Medicine: Preferably a MD/DipNB/FRCP/MRCP/Certificate from the American Board in Internal Medicine with exposure to the Indian environment in clinical management.
3. Consultant in Pediatrics: Preferably a DCH/MD/DipNB/FRCP/MRCP/Certificate from the American Board in Pediatrics with exposure to the Indian environment in clinical management.
4. Consultant in      Surgery: Preferably a DCH/MD/DipNB/FRCS/Certificate from the American Board in Surgery with exposure to the Indian environment in clinical management.
5. General Nursing and Midwifery: Preferably a fresher in the GNM course from an accredited Nursing School. There are positions vacant for both men and women. Preference would be given to those who show specific interest in burns management, obstetrics and neonatal care.
6. Store Assistant: A graduate in any discipline with exposure to basic mathematics. However, preference would be given to people with experience or a degree in material management.

For graduates from countries abroad, please note that you will need to take the necessary clearance from the corresponding Indian councils before you plan to join us.

What can I assure you? I can assure you a time of hard work with opportunities to influence the lives of thousands of the most poor and marginalized in our part of the country. Of course, we pay enough to make a good living. There is an organizational pay structure which we follow.

For further information, please contact me either at jeevan@eha-health.org or jeevan53@gmail.com. Since we belong to the organization - Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA), appointments would happen only through the Central Office. You may wonder why I did not put the number of required posts. EHA has a total of 20 units spread out all over the country and quite a number of them are in situations which are very similar to ours.