I woke up this morning to 3 loud BANGS...it was around 7am. I simply figured that these were still people enjoying themselves still from last nights fire festival where people were setting off gun powder in barrels. As I got out of bed, I saw Patrick looking out the window and said he thinks those were actually gun shots. I laughed at him, but for some reason, there was a police officer outside in the distance with what looked like an AK47...scary. On our way to the hospital...there were lots of people on the grounds...with suits. You don't really see that here at all. Anyways, we get to the ward to start rounding and heard the gossip form the nurses. Supposedly last night we had admitted a prisoner for chest pain and arrhythmias. He was basically under police surveillance the whole night and was hand cuffed to his bed. Somehow this morning he escaped from the hand cuffs (inside job?) asked the nurse to go to the washroom in the hut just behind the ward...the nurse didn't know he was the prisoner, so said no problem. He then jumped out the window and ran off! The police we're away for few seconds and when they saw he ran off, they started chasing him! Then he ran towards the fields near our house and into the distance to leave the grounds of the hospital...so the police officers SHOT at him! 3 gunshots....they missed and he escaped!! This was really freaky to hear...cause this guy was supposedly in prison for murder. Oh well...he ran off now, hopefully he wont' come anywhere near here. But Mom I know you are reading this...we are safe here, there are around 3-4 guards on patrol near my house...they don't have guns but today when I spoke to them, they showed me their sling shot with rocks.....so if anyone messes around...they will be stoned!! I also managed to get a pic of the cuffs still on the bed post...very cool! We think he won't get too far though because he had some kind of heart arrhythmia...so maybe he will eventually collapse. Things are always interesting here in Ghana!!
Another interesting story for all of you...it's amazing how the people of Nalerigu try to help each other out with any means possible. There is this one young girl admitted for a bad infection that she got in her tooth which spread to her chest wall. We needed to remove the skin from her chest up to her neck and breast in order to get rid of this bad infection. She is doing super well now and healing amazingly. Usually these people will get skin grafts from other parts of their body to cover up the removed infected skin. These skin grafts cost money and for patients with no health insurance...it can get pretty expensive. Basically, a skin graft will cost someone with no money around 150$ but Ghanaian money, which here is A LOT! This girl needs around 3 skin grafts to completely cover her open chest wound. She has no insurance and no money...so the question is, what do you do? We can't really send her off because this will never heal without any skin grafts but she is nowhere near close enough to pay for this. Most of the times, for those who don't have insurance they never have money to pay their hospital bill. Some will stay in the hospital while their family members go out and work to get money to pay their bill so they can be discharged. So this girl has been sitting on the ward, waiting to see if she can get money for skin grafts...but its nearly impossible. The hospital here has a department called Special Needs...basically they receive donations from people who come work here and visit and with this money, will try and pay some of the patients bills. All this to say, this girl today was accepted to have a portion of her bill covered for her skin grafts. It's interesting to see that the hospital negotiates with the patients and says they will cover 70% of the bill but will truly pay for it all because they know they wont be able to pay. They do this because they still want the people to be committed to the payment and that they won't always be getting a free ride if they have no money. They still need to feel responsible for this and not take it for granted. If I were them...I would be so happy! However, here...most people will bring their loved ones home if they can't pay a bill. They don't want to deal with being in debt over saving a life...its hard to understand but thats the way things roll here. Anyways, I am happy to see that she will be getting her skin grafts and off to a hopeful recovery! Another problem is that we are running out of blades here for skin grafts and rely on people coming in to work here to bring some over....there is always something! Surviving here is sometimes more important than trying to save a life through a hospital bill....very sad to see :(
Oh...I am sick again...lol i guess this is normal...i got a fever and diarrhea...hopefully I will get over this quickly...don't want to be flying back with the runs! hahaha sorry for "too much information"
Before I go, I wanted to thank everyone for reading my blog...I have been getting emails and facebook messages...and its exciting to see that you are all following my experience! I hope you are all enjoying this as much as I am. My mom actually emailed me and told me how one of my god daughters was talking about my blogs to her classmates and reading it to them...when this girl in her class heard about it who knew my little brother because her brother plays hockey with mine and they spoke about my blogs at their hockey game to my mom and to top it all off, the english teacher in that class is one of my old grade 3-4 english teachers, Mrs. Adrienne...from Socrates who is also following my blog!! Such a small world!! Anyways...keep reading everyone!
I will go and lay down now and try to get rid of this travellers diarrhea....yay ;)
Gnight!
P.S. Evie - 9 days 19 hours and 4 mins... I can't wait :)
Another interesting story for all of you...it's amazing how the people of Nalerigu try to help each other out with any means possible. There is this one young girl admitted for a bad infection that she got in her tooth which spread to her chest wall. We needed to remove the skin from her chest up to her neck and breast in order to get rid of this bad infection. She is doing super well now and healing amazingly. Usually these people will get skin grafts from other parts of their body to cover up the removed infected skin. These skin grafts cost money and for patients with no health insurance...it can get pretty expensive. Basically, a skin graft will cost someone with no money around 150$ but Ghanaian money, which here is A LOT! This girl needs around 3 skin grafts to completely cover her open chest wound. She has no insurance and no money...so the question is, what do you do? We can't really send her off because this will never heal without any skin grafts but she is nowhere near close enough to pay for this. Most of the times, for those who don't have insurance they never have money to pay their hospital bill. Some will stay in the hospital while their family members go out and work to get money to pay their bill so they can be discharged. So this girl has been sitting on the ward, waiting to see if she can get money for skin grafts...but its nearly impossible. The hospital here has a department called Special Needs...basically they receive donations from people who come work here and visit and with this money, will try and pay some of the patients bills. All this to say, this girl today was accepted to have a portion of her bill covered for her skin grafts. It's interesting to see that the hospital negotiates with the patients and says they will cover 70% of the bill but will truly pay for it all because they know they wont be able to pay. They do this because they still want the people to be committed to the payment and that they won't always be getting a free ride if they have no money. They still need to feel responsible for this and not take it for granted. If I were them...I would be so happy! However, here...most people will bring their loved ones home if they can't pay a bill. They don't want to deal with being in debt over saving a life...its hard to understand but thats the way things roll here. Anyways, I am happy to see that she will be getting her skin grafts and off to a hopeful recovery! Another problem is that we are running out of blades here for skin grafts and rely on people coming in to work here to bring some over....there is always something! Surviving here is sometimes more important than trying to save a life through a hospital bill....very sad to see :(
Oh...I am sick again...lol i guess this is normal...i got a fever and diarrhea...hopefully I will get over this quickly...don't want to be flying back with the runs! hahaha sorry for "too much information"
Before I go, I wanted to thank everyone for reading my blog...I have been getting emails and facebook messages...and its exciting to see that you are all following my experience! I hope you are all enjoying this as much as I am. My mom actually emailed me and told me how one of my god daughters was talking about my blogs to her classmates and reading it to them...when this girl in her class heard about it who knew my little brother because her brother plays hockey with mine and they spoke about my blogs at their hockey game to my mom and to top it all off, the english teacher in that class is one of my old grade 3-4 english teachers, Mrs. Adrienne...from Socrates who is also following my blog!! Such a small world!! Anyways...keep reading everyone!
I will go and lay down now and try to get rid of this travellers diarrhea....yay ;)
Gnight!
P.S. Evie - 9 days 19 hours and 4 mins... I can't wait :)
Awesome ...especially the diaRRHEA!!! HA ...gross...
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