The Road to Gimbie Letters

08/15/01

Dear Family and Friends,

We have had some interesting patients and events here of late.

We had a group of three medical students here from Loma Linda visiting this past month. They had a chance to see some things that they will not see in their U.S. medical training, such as parasites. All too soon, they had to leave, but we will be getting another medical student visiting us. In fact, he has already arrived in Addis and will be coming out to Gimbie by bus tomorrow. Another volunteer will be coming out to help with construction next week and a nurse will be coming out, Heidi, who spent last summer here.

In the medical area, we had an interesting delivery this last week. There is a schizophrenic beggar woman who is one of the many beggars in town. Someone got her pregnant and she was brought over to our hospital by one of the government health clinic workers, since they did not want to deal with this kind of delivery. Actually, things went very smoothly. The only thing that was unusual at all about her was the fact that she preferred to labor on the cold, hard concrete floor rather than in the bed. We tried to make her comfortable, but she just didn't want any of the padding or blankets. When it came time to deliver her, she finally let us put her on the delivery bed. The only problem was that she would not push the baby out. We finally used a vacuum on the baby's head and sucked the little guy out. All in all, a rather easy delivery compared to some of the deliveries that we get here. I was told by people that know her from town that she becomes less psychotic when she is pregnant. An interesting idea, but a treatment I would hardly recommend to your average psychotic woman.

The next story is a rather gruesome one, so if you have a weak stomach, skip the next few paragraphs. As I have mentioned in some previous e-mails, we do dead body exams for the police to look for causes of death and document them for the courts. We have seen such horrible things as stabbings, gunshot wounds, machine gun to the head, and others. This past week, we were told that the police had brought in a body because the family had suspected trauma as the cause of death, but the husband of this woman said she had taken poison to commit suicide. The problem came when the family made their complaint after the patient had been dead and buried for 10 days. You must understand that this is the rainy season and everything rots fast here this time of year. You must also know that no attempts are made at embalming people for funerals so they will look natural.

Well, the police officer that brought this case in said that the smell was very bad. He came with tissues stuffed up his nostrils. Dr. Rose and I went to examine the body and the smell was pretty strong even with the coffin sealed. Most coffins here are made of a hollowed-out piece of tree trunk and the lid is nailed on and the seam around the lid is sealed with mud. Well, we could smell the body through the coffin.

During dead body exams, only the police officer and the two doctors are allowed in the morgue. The police don't actually do anything, they are just witnesses that everything is done correctly. Well, we finally got the lid open and there was such a strong smell that you could almost taste it. The morgue we had has two windows. The police with us went running to one of the windows and began gasping for air. When we saw the body, we realized that it would be hopeless to try to lift the body out and put it on the exam table, which is what we usually do. The skin just started falling off the body even with pulling the cloth wrap off. As I did this, the police ran to the window on the side of the room farthest from the body and then said that he had to leave and went running for the door. It was at this time that Dr. Rose went back to his office to get a flashlight to see the head of the body better, since there was a concern of trauma there. While he did this I was in the room alone with the body and tried to get a better look and check the bones to see if it were broken. The body was so swollen, I didn't press too hard, since I have heard of bodies actually popping open.

When Dr. Rose came back in with the light, we had a look at the body and it was really tough to tell if there was trauma or not since everything was just falling apart. Dr. Rose said that when he came back in with the flashlight that he walked by the door and the police officer was outside retching. Well, they took the body away and after an hour or two, I stopped smelling that rotting smell.

That was the end of the story, I thought, but the same police officer came in a few days later vomiting. He said he had not been able to keep anything down since that event. He had also tried to forget the smell by drinking a lot of alcohol to help him forget. Anyway, it didn't work and we had to admit the guy to the hospital for dehydration. I am happy to say he went home today feeling a lot better. I have also gained a new appreciation for forensic pathologists and others who do this kind of work daily. It makes me glad I am a missionary in Gimbie, where life is a lot easier than that.

One final thought in the Road to Gimbie. Our hospital license is up for renewal. This happens every 5 years. We have been here less than 2 years and are trying to fix problems that have happened, or greatly worsened over the past 5 years. Our hospital has made some great strides in overcoming the past, but we are still suffering for the mistakes of the past. Please remember us in your prayers as we try to get this agreement signed, and continue to work on upgrading this place.

A big thank you to those of you who write. It means a lot. Dr. Rose is back from furlough, but off again to Addis to work on this agreement. Our other regular physician, Dr. Fetene, is on vacation for another 3 weeks. We have a surgeon filling in during the next few weeks, so the two of us will be managing things. Please keep us in your prayers also.

Sincerely in Christ,

Nick, Phosfe, Christopher and Ian Walters