Whoa . . . what a rupture?

I returned yesterday evening from the short break, thanks to the twin days of general strike. It was a risk taken . . . calculated risk . . . but really risky to drive back on the afternoon of the second day of the bandh. The good Lord was with us. However, we wanted to back badly . . . for multiple reasons.

Today morning, we had a mournful looking man in my office. Husband of Sde, a lady who had a rupture uterus in her first pregnancy. Something very unusual, but quite possible in our part of the world.

The poor lady had been in labour for almost a whole day, before the relatives decided to take her to the hospital. The first hospital they went to could sense that something was drastically wrong . . . and referred the patient promptly to Ranchi.

They dropped at NJH and wanted us to take up the case.

Dr. Shishir was on call . . . and the diagnosis was unbelievable. It was an obvious rupture uterus and of course, the baby was dead. She was lucky to be alive.

Per-operatively, the condition of the uterus was very bad. Dr. Shishir had to nick off quite a lot of necrotic tissue before he could sew the uterus back. Being a primi, he did not go for a tubectomy.

A tubectomy would ensure that the lady is abandoned by her husband. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a primi rupture uterus. Believe me, it’s really bad.

Sde had developed fever with breathlessness overnight. Either she was going into septicemia or she had atelectasis. Investigations showed the former. We’ve upscaled her antibiotics.

We hope that she would not have any more complications. Ultrasound also shows that the uterus appears intact.

In addition to SDe, we’ve had another 4 patients at some stage of eclampsia. Interestingly, we’ve got all the babies alive . . . something very miraculous.

Before I sign off from this post, just a reminder about the staff needs of the place . . .

Bandh . . . Time for a break

We have been having quite a lot of problems in our region which has been reported quite a bit in the media. I’m not here to comment on who is right or wrong . . . but a bit on how life has affected us at NJH, because of 2 days of bandh which has been called tomorrow and the day after, It is true that we’ve not had general strikes for almost 3 months since September 2012.

However, I have a hunch that things are not going to be the same at least for some time. There are multiple reasons for the same.

Coming back to the way things go haywire at NJH when there is a bandh. . . or do we get a well deserved break as one of my friends recently put it.

We had registered a team of our hospital staff to go to the Christian Medical College, Vellore for a training in Critical Care. With the amount of very seriously ill patients whom we’ve been dealing with of late, I had been planning this since last year. 

Now, the team of 4 was supposed to leave on Monday to board their train from Ranchi. Because of the bandh, the team had to leave today for Ranchi. Now, they would be sitting jobless for the next 2 days in Ranchi.

Then, we were planning to visit Ranchi on Tuesday for some major purchases. However, the bandh for two days means that Tuesday would be a busy day in the hospital. Which would mean that I’d rather be in hospital on Tuesday.

In addition, I realised that it would be a rather relaxed day in hospital on Monday. So, I could take a chance of doing the work in Ranchi on Monday.

Presto, I had to take a decision on Saturday afternoon. To go to Ranchi in a short notice of 3 hours . . . or not. I remember that my better half and the kids had been looking at the prospect of couple of days away from hospital. I suggest that we all go together.

Well . . . you can imagine us getting the 3 kids ready with all the packing for 3 nights away from home. Angel is quite well adapted to this sort of sudden planning. So, there was not much problems.

I had quite a lot of work to settle in the office. I was out by 3 pm and the whole family plus the critical care team was out of the hospital campus by 3:30 pm.

We reached Ranchi by 7 pm and had dinner at one of the hotels which was not a very good experience for the money we spent. 

But, we were surprised by the fact that it was less cold in Ranchi than it was at NJH. It was a welcome relief for all of us . . .

Am I relieved that I’m away from NJH ? ? ? Well, that’s something we’ll decide once we return back. Because, when I left the hospital, the Acute Care was full. There was no bed left. Then as we drove, I got a call about a boy who had come with an overdose of Bhang . . . a local form of canabis.

More on the Bhang and the patients in Acute Care in my next post. 

I shall relax for the next 2 days.

(This post was written on Saturday, 12th January, 2013 and was not posted because of poor internet connection)

No tears . . . No one to cry . . . (1)

(Viewer discretion advised. Pictures may not be acceptable to many)

Yesterday was a black day for our region. 

25 villagers from our neighbouring village, Rankikala lost their lives as they were returning after migrant labour in neighbouring Bihar. There is hardly any newspaper which gave the full details. If it had happened with some well known people and in a town/city, you would have had much more details. 

We had gone to console the families who lost their loved ones. 

The snaps and details are below . . . 

The crowd was after where the leaders were going . . . 

More crowds . . . 

The locals had blocked the National Highway . . .

This autorikshaw contains 5 bodies . . .  a father and 4 children. The mother is admitted in Patna . . .

The local Member of Parliament, Mr. Inder Singh Namdhari

Bodies being loaded into a tractor for the final journey

This is 11 members of the same family. 

Interestingly, there was nobody to console. The remaining family members had accepted the grim reality without much fuss. 

Everybody was busy finding out how much money each of the survivors would receive from the government. 

More on this tragedy in a later post . . . 

Honey Apple Cake

Another of our exploits in baking cakes . . . The first upside down cake in our home. The recipe was from this site. We used only a quarter cup of milk instead of half cup. Actually, I forgot to add the 2nd quarter. But the end result was good. 

Praise and Prayer . . . Jan 7, 2013

We praise and thank God for all the good that he gave us during 2012. We also thank for the tough times because they brought us closer to God as well as helped us realise our frailty and dependence on our rock and salvation, Jesus Christ.

I’ve tried to put down few of the major points that we are thankful about as well as concerns which you could well share in your daily prayers.

1.    We thank the Lord for very sick patients who found healing at NJH. Images of so many patients, few of which I’ve shared in the blog vindicate our calling. And we are thankful.

2.    We thank the Lord for the new staff who joined over 2012. We pray that the Lord will use each of them to be a blessing to all those around them.

3.    Many of our staff were on holiday and travelling during Christmas time. We thank the Lord that all of them have returned safe. Couple of them are still on vacation and would return only the end of January.

4.    The hospital was able to function without much hitches during the Christmas time. We recorded an all time high statistics for December in all areas of the hospital. We thank the Lord.

5.    We had quite a fewprograms during Christmas time. All of them were well arranged and attended. Kindly pray that all those who joined our celebrations would ultimately come to know the real meaning of Christmas.

6.    The region has been in a grip of a very bad cold wave. We thank the Lord that all staff are doing well. Please pray for the farmers who have been affected because of the cold.

7.    The very sick patients, especially obstetric cases continue to  come on a regular basis. We thank the Lord for the healing given. Please pray that we would get more qualified staff for critical care.

8.    During this winter, I’ve realised that we live in a very beautiful campus. We thank the Lord.

9.    We thank for Dr. Nandamani and Dr. Ango for the time, they have served at NJH. They plan for a short break. Please pray that we would have a replacement plan for a surgeon as soon as possible.

10.                       During this winter, we’ve been quite a lot involved with geriatric care. We were also involved in some very unusual diagnosis. We thank the Lord for the learnings as well as the new challenges. Again, we would do good with expert help.

11.                       Please continue to pray for the Community Health team who are working on the themes of disability, community based adaptation in response to climate change and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana. The challenges are many. Here also we need few more dedicated staff for the smooth work.

12.                       The staff requirements continue to remain. I’ve put up a new list. Please pray and pass the message along.