I heard something yesterday afternoon that made me pause. I heard crying. Now I'm surrounded by 300+ kids- it shouldn't really be all that odd. But I've been here nearly 3 weeks and that seems like the first time. By the time I put all this together and went to investigate the crying had pretty much stopped and the kid was picking up a bike and limping away. I decided that I didn't need go any further and didn't think about it again until I was at the clinic this morning. One of the CM2 or CP1 (3rd or 4th grade) boys came in with a big, deep, ugly gash on the inside of his leg. The blood and dirt had it mostly caked shut and I think he came to the clinic because he couldn't get his shorts off because the blood had dried it all into one gross mess. Once I started cleaning it, I quickly realized this should have had a boatload of stitches- more than 12 hours ago, way to late now. This was worth only a few minutes of crying and a "shake it off" walk?!
I have got to figure out a way to get these kids to come to me when they need something. They won't come to where I am, they wait until I'm at the clinic. I'm really afraid about infection in this leg and I don't really know how to dress this mess. I had found some antibiotic powder that didn't have an expiration date on it (which may mean that it is so old that it is pre-regulation but I'm not going to dwell on that), threw a bunch of steri strips loosely on it and wrapped it all up pretty tight. On the up side if he does get an infection in it he will never complain about it.
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