A 10-year-old girl came in last week with huge hematoma on her head caused by a motorcycle accident. A hematoma is a collection of blood outside the blood vessels. We get them all the time as bruises. This young girl’s was different in that it was a huge amount of blood that had collected on her head, just under her scalp. Her swollen head was very soft to the touch – in fact, it felt you were poking a water balloon.

She was sent home last week, and told to return if the swelling didn’t go down. Usually the blood just dissolves and in her case they were concerned about the risk of infection if they drained it.

She returned today and it hadn’t changed at all. Read the rest of this entry »

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One of the greatest privileges I have as a photographer at the Baptist Medical Centre is the ability to go into the operating room to observe and photograph surgeries. Though my medical knowledge is limited, I still love watching the process. I can’t imagine how I would ever get a similar opportunity in the US with all the legal issues my presence in the OR would create.

Usually I try to visually document a procedure with images to give other non-medical folks (like me) an idea of what happens and how. On this blog I’ve posted a c-section, a skin graft, finger, toe, and leg amputations, and lipoma excisions. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dr. Faile did 6 hernia operations today but I only had the patience to stand in for 2. How he does that day after day, week after week, and month after month for the last 19+ years I don’t know. All that said, he did a beautiful job suturing up the one above.

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This image is dedicated to my expectant sister-in-law, Annie.

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I must first warn you that without Heidi here to help me, my medical slideshows won’t be near as detailed and informative. Nonetheless, I figured I’d try one and I had a 4th year med student here help me with some details.

I went in the OR today for a leg amputation of 56 year-old man who had a motorcycle accident several weeks ago. Like many of the cases seen at the hospital, he neglected to seek medical attention and resorted to “local medicine” which made the situation worse. His leg was fractured below the knee and the wound became very infected. The local healer had him rubbing charcoal on it and the infection eventually spread up from his lower leg to his thigh. Read the rest of this entry »

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BMC doesn’t hold clinic on Tuesdays and Thursdays as those days are reserved for minor & surgical procedures. Today I was able to finally join Dr. Faile in the OR for a hernia operation and a c-section.

The portrait above is of the mother just before the c-section. I loved her unkempt hair. The operation was successful and a beautiful, healthy boy was brought into the world.

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The celebration is over and today the hospital staff were greet by a HUGE crowd of people for clinic. Despite having 4 med students, 2 residents, and a surgeon helping out it took until nearly 10pm to finish. Here’s a photo that captured the frantic, busy scene well. For those interested it was a hand held 1/2 second exposure so I braced the camera against a pole.

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** a big thunderstorm took out our internet for a day so I was a bit behind on posts. I’ve caught up and posted the last few days photos on the website **

The “sea creature” I mentioned the other day has been slain. I’ve heard varying accounts of how it happened ranging from “they shot it” to the more exciting “it took thousands of men with cutlasses.”

What I know for sure is that after it was killed, its head was sent to the Nayiri as a gift. Hippo meat is supposedly very good (just ask Tommy Harrison who went to the Nayiri to get some) and when I visited the chief’s palace all that was left was its massive jaw bone.

On a not-so-entertaining note, the man attacked by the hippo is still in the hospital and in critical condition. Keep him in your prayers as he is in a great deal of pain and has 8 broken ribs.

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