Day 8: Different Hospital Visit

In Ghana especially its all about who you know. You can get things done so much quicker and easier if you know someone. Johnbull knows the owner of a hospital in Accra. This owner has been extremely helpful with making sure the children of CORM healthy. For 7 years he has given Johnbull free medical care for them. CORM takes every kid to the hospital right after being rescued to find out their medical conditions. It seems that the longer they spent at the lake the more health problems they have.

Today, Johnbull, Dr Troy and I took two of the CORM kids. Anthony has had blood in his urine from the parasite in the lake. Daniel lost his hearing in his right ear from mumps. This is because mumps causing swelling around the glands and ears. Johnbull had to pay for the boys before they could take a seat to be seen. As I mentioned in a previous blog, you will not be seen if you don’t pay up front. No money, no service. I asked Dr. Troy how health insurance works here. He said it covers all the basic vaccines; however, the government wants all children to be vaccinated so you likely will be even without insurance.  It is also rare to keep an immunization record. Rescued children rarely know their whether they were vaccinated or not because they were too young to remember.The World Health Organization also really helps out Ghana so that diseases are contained. 

It is also rare to have electronic medical records. Anthony and Daniel received a small little laminated notecard with their information on it after Johnbull signed them in. Next time, they must bring the notecard with them so that the secretaries can find their folder. Dr. Troy is worried about them going on to senior high without vaccinations because they will be living in close quarters with other people.  I mentioned before they do not get vaccinated after age two. They could very likely lose immunity after so long without the vaccine.

Going to the hospital is a full day event. There are no scheduled appointments so you must get there early and wait. Hospitals have speciality doctors but they are only there 1-2 days a week; you have to catch them at the right time. This seems so frustrating to me. Today, there was only one doctor on call and he took about 30 minutes per patient. There were 8 patients in from of us when we got there. When we were next in line, a man returned and the nurse let him cut to the front. Johnbull said “Hey we have been waiting a long time.” She said that he got here earlier this morning, left for a short while and now returned. This seemed like an unfair system. I learned that staff will often allow the elderly to cut in line. 

We arrived at the hospital around 9 and left at 3:30. Dr. Troy said hardest thing for him to get used to since moving here has been how arbitrary time is. There will be a meeting scheduled at noon and people do not show up until 12:30, 1:00, or whenever that can. Last week, It took him 7 hours to get his oil changed. Many things that seem like a simple errand are often full day events. 

I picked up on the fact that nurses wear outfits based on their rank/year. A white dress had more respect and experience than a green dress and a belt around their outfit signified even higher rank. Another small observation that I made is that the doctors/nurses/and staff all wear flip flops. This isn’t something I’d see in America for safety and sanitary reasons.

If you have type 1 Diabetes in Ghana you will very likely die because there’s not refrigeration or proper equipment to keep up with it. Have to have insulin. Diet is also very high in carbs which would make managing diabetes all the more difficult. This diet is not something that can be easily changed since high carb foods are most readily available. The cities have a higher rate of success but still unlikely. When people do not know what people die from it makes it hard to track their family’s history. In many cases in the U.S., a family history helps doctors diagnose since there are high rates of heredity with a lot of health issues.