Visit to Korle-Bu Hospital

Friday, June 19, 2009 - Ghana Adventure Day 14
More of today's photos in slideshow section 2 - click HERE to view.
(back-dated post completed December 30)

This morning, we had our trip to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. I was so happy to finally meet Eunice! (Dr. Eunice Adei, a senior resident who has been working with me on what supplies are needed.) She is very pretty, with lots of thin, tiny braids. Akos liked her hair, and wants her braids just the same way. Dr. Adei and all the staff were SO grateful for everything we brought. They took photos, and so did we. We went through all the supplies, then she took us on a tour of the Children’s Block. It is a dismal place, but they are certainly doing all they can. Very few of the rooms have air conditioning. The beds are old, with peeling paint on the metal, and rust. There are stains all over the walls, ceilings, and of course, the floors. We saw a girl probably about 4 years old with a soft tissue tumor pushing her cheek out so far, the tumor was almost as large as her head. The hallways were crowded with moms feeding their babies, since there was no room by the babies’ beds. The nurses wear very crisp, brightly white, old-fashioned uniforms. The head nurse of each unit is the matron. Eunice introduced me to the matron of each unit as we went by. She showed me the rigged-up blindfolds to protect eyes from bili-lights (we brought some eye covers designed for that purpose). She showed me a baby getting oxygen through a feeding tube because they had no nasal cannulas (we brought nasal cannulas), and a baby probably less than 1 ½ pounds-2 pounds with a regular newborn diaper that practically swallowed him up (we brought Wee Pee diapers from Children’s Medical Ventures, designed for micro-preemies). The outpatient area consisted of a large crowd of people and a couple of desks (small), each with two doctors trying to examine their patients in the chairs. Paperwork covered the desks completely. The emergency room is SOO small and dingy – very little ventilation, and very hot. They will sometimes have 30-40 patients in that room, no bigger than 8x12. The most memorable was the NICU – all the preemies! Most were in incubators, but they had a special KMC (Kangaroo Mother Care) unit, in which the moms are to keep the baby wrapped on their chests, skin-to-skin. We got to take some photos of a little girl, certainly less than 2 pounds. The mom even held her out and gave her to Lydia to hold! Wow! We then went next door to another KMC room, where mother with teeny tiny twin boys was getting them re-wrapped onto her chest. The mother in the next bed (so close, you could barely walk between them) watched with a very neutral expression. She had a little baby girl on the bed. The nurse said, “This one had twin girls, but one passed, so she is left with one.” She said it in a voice that didn’t sound solemn or sad – actually almost cheerful…very unsettling. But, I guess that is so common here that it’s not a big deal. At home, such a mom would be in a private room and would have a rose or other symbol on her door to let everyone know to be extra gentle and respectful with her.

After the hospital trip, we went to get Akos’ visa pictures and to pick up her medical report. We also got some more cedis for me. The exchange is 1.4 cedis for a dollar – but if you pay in dollars, they give you the same change as if it were a 1:1 exchange. So, if you spend dollars, you will spend LOTS more for the same product. Finally, the big wild-goose chase – my Canon camera (the nice one) is out of batteries, and I can’t get my battery charger to work! How horrible to think of not being able to get decent pictures the whole rest of the trip – the back-up camera, the little purple Polaroid, takes terrible pictures - almost always out of focus. So, Uncle P took us all over, mainly in the Osu area, to look for a battery charger, and we had no luck with it at all. Great news, though – I got back to the room and found an e-mail from Rebekah Padilla, saying she is coming to Ghana on Sunday! She’s adopting Constance and Jonathan, who are staying as the same foster home where Akos stayed. Rebekah was happy to bring me a charger, so I found a photo shop near her home in Torrance, CA, paid over the phone, and Rebekah picked it up later in the day! Yay! She is going to be staying at our hotel, so I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun together.

I had lobster with garlic butter sauce tonight – even cheaper than prawns! Only 18 cedis, which is $12.85. Yummy!!! The girls both had chicken and rice – SO good – they ate really well. We had ice cream, too, which was surprisingly expensive (we didn't think to check the price until afterward) – 6 cedis just for plain ice cream. Strange!