The ward round this morning was very low key. There were no new admissions and the remaining patients were fine. There are still 3 femur fractures waiting for intramedullary nailing, 1 forearm fracture, 1 distal femoral malunion for an osteotomy and an older man with a supracondylar fracture of the femur on one side and a tibial fracture on the other which seems to have been abandoned. The little boy with the osteomyelitis looked much happier today and his temperature was normal this morning. I asked to see the temperature chart but was told there was none but that they could get one from paediatrics. I shall see tomorrow whether the chart has appeared!
Outpatients were very quiet today but we saw a young boy with a femoral fracture treated non operatively in the Dominican Republic with a healed fracture and good alignement but 3 cms shortening. As he is only 5 years old this should remodel with growth. Then a young adult presented with an ankle and foot problem which he said was troubling him since last Monday. Clinically he had marked wasting of his left upper and lower limbs with signs consistent with a spastic hemiplegia and I pointed out the spontaneous Babinski sign to the residents. Haitien patients don’t tell the truth the residents keep telling me and they are right: on further questioning he admitted that he had problems with his leg since he was a child!!!
I left the clinic early today to go to an opening of a new rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of Cap Haitien. This centre is part of a hospital which is being built by the Baptist Convention of Haiti with the help of a number of overseas aid organizations and when finished will have a maternity, paediatric ward and an operating theatre is being completed currently. The opening ceremony was a typical Haitian event with a lot of speeches, prayers, singing and followed by some food. There were representatives from the United Nations, Haiti Hospital Appeal, Swiss Paraplegic Foundation etc. One of the Swiss representatives spotted my Citroen hat and asked me whether I liked French cars. It turned out that he is the past president of the Swiss Citroen Club and owns 3 vintage Citroen Tractions. When I found out that he was working at the National Swiss Paraplegic Centre in Nottwil I asked him whether he knew Niklaus Aebli who works in the same place and was my PhD student in Dunedin for 3 years. He did indeed and we had a great chat about Citroens and the work the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation is doing in Haiti and other countries. The world is a small place indeed and you never know who you will meet around the next corner. Amazing really!
Our driver was keen to get back to Cap Haitien as he wanted to watch the Barcelona versus Milan soccer game. Haitians are soccer fanatics and all the way home we could see crowds of people lined up outside shops with TV’s and standing on motorcycles to get a good view. That was the end of a great day!
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