Day 6: Hospital Visit

I have never heard kids laugh so much. They really just laugh at everything and make me feel like I’m way funnier than I am. They also take everything like a champ. They are so aggressive when they play and attack one another but no one ever cries or gets upset they just get up and get back out there.

Dr. Troy’s wife, Jaime, is getting her Ghanaian nursing license. She is already a registered nurse in the U.S. but has to go through three months of volunteering in 6 different wards in order to treat patients in Ghana. She said it has been pretty difficult because a lot of what she’s doing a demotion from what she’s used to. She has to keep her opinions to herself a lot. In the U.S., if you come into the hospital and need immediate attention you will be treated right away. In Ghana, you will not be treated unless you pay. This has been especially hard for Jaime because she’s watched people just lay there and die when they can be so easily treated but simply do not have the money upfront.

I wasn’t able to take pictures inside the hospital but if you want to visualize it, each ward is one big room. It’s not like each patient gets their own room, there are just dividers between beds. There is very little privacy. There are very select few rooms for families that are able to privately pay.

Mothers rarely make it to the labor delivery room and will just delivery right in the hallway or open space. They are encouraged to come to hospital for a more healthy and monitored delivery but many do not. One of the most interesting facts I heard today and possibly a reason why people may choose not to deliver in a hospital is that the delivery must be done completely alone with the midwife.  No relatives or husbands can be at the bedside. They must wait outside. This could possibly be a rule due to the fact that there’s simply no privacy.  Especially in the maternity ward, women will be half naked, in labor, or very exposed in the environment and not want other men in there to see them. Again, it is just one open room with beds and dividers. Dr. Troy jokingly said it might be because the men just don’t want to go through that anyway. In addition to all of that, women do not receive any epidurals or pain medicine. It is a 100% natural birth. I can’t imagine giving birth in general but certainly not under all of these circumstances. The midwives do the entirety of the deliveries. They are excellent at their jobs and earned this hospital a great reputation because there hasn’t been a maternal death in 5 years which is unheard of in Africa. Midwives are the highest level of nursing here, very respected.  They are looked at as almost the same level as doctors. And doctors are more looked up to than politicians. 

In the ER, patients have to bring their own sheets and blankets. Can you imagine having an emergency at home and having to be like wait let’s find some sheets.  Jaime said this is because the patients come and go so fast that it gets too expensive to have to keep cleaning and replenishing the linen supply. 

I’ve also been picking up more and more that shaming is a big part of African culture. It is simply their main way of discipline. At CORM, they try to stray away from this given the kids backgrounds. Several teachers have said they wish they were able to physically discipline them because it works more efficiently. In the other schools right down the street kids will be publicly humiliated or caned (hit with a cane) during school.  

Along the coastal area where river enters Atlantic, approximately 90% of kids are involved in human trafficking/child labor. There are still thousands of kids along the lake working and being trafficked. The only ways they are sort of “rescued” is when the government does a raid or people seek out adoption in the area. CORM no longer investigates on their own, they choose to take the legal route at this point. They have a lot of children to keep safe so it is better to follow a legal routine and let social workers handle a lot of it. Many of the children do not know where they are from because they were trafficked at such a young age such as 5. They cannot remember where they grew up or their parents names or their own last name which makes it nearly impossible to track down their villages and families. When children come to CORM, no matter how they got their or what they’ve been through, they are welcomed with open arms.