A Lovely Week in an African Hospital

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Appendectomy African Style

When I woke up in the middle of the night throwing up and having diarrhea, I must admit that I thought nothing of it. Let’s be honest, I have spent a majority of my time here in Ethiopia participating in such fun tourist activities. The pain, though, was unbearable. It could be likened to the excruciating discomfort of watching Sara Palin in an interview… and equally as nauseating I might add!


After spending the rest of the night and following morning writhing in pain, Courtney finally convinced me to go to the ER. After blood, urine, and fecal tests, poking and prodding, and becoming accustomed to the omnipresent hospital stench, it was determined that I probably had appendicitis. As I waited an hour for the surgeon to arrive and make an official diagnosis, I anticipated what it might be like to have my first real surgery in a 3rd world country… an African country ranked near to last on the World Health Organization’s list of countries with access to healthcare.


As soon as the surgeon arrived, I was stripped naked, thrown on a gurney and wheeled off for my emergency appendectomy. The last thing I remember from the operating table was chatting up the Anesthesiologist about American politics and why Obama must win. The last thing I remember him saying was, “what?… you say you want Obama because I’m black?” I tried to say , “no, I’m just not stupid,” but things went all hazy pretty quick.


I woke up in the post-op room completely alone, hooked up to tons of machines, unable to move, staring at a ceiling, wondering where the hell I was and how the hell I got there…. It was quite surreal. Things all came together when some guy came by, shook me around, asked me how I felt, and plopped my appendix on the table at the foot of the bed.


The next four days of in-hospital recovery were fairly hellacious. I am sooo lucky to have Courtney here to take care of me. I don’t think I could have put up with that hospital without her. My abdominal pain was horrendous and the pain meds they gave were weak and did little more than shift my focus from the stomach pain to the pain in my ass from the shot.


The nurses always used clean syringes and supplies, so I tried to ignore the complete lack of hand washing and glove wearing. I received 6 different IV lines during my 5 days in the hospital. My hands kept swelling and the lines continually filled with blood which then clotted. Instead of changing the lines, the nurses would just press harder on the syringe to force the antibiotics through… not what I would classify as comfortable on the receiving end.

Unlucky Yet Oh So Lucky

While it would be more than easy to recognize the misfortune of having appendicitis in Africa, a deeper look shows just how lucky I really am. You see, we were in Addis this last week for the Ethiopian holiday Meskal. We attended a celebration with 10’s of thousands of people… and I had my cell phone stolen… no this is not the good fortune to which I am referring.


That very evening after Meskal is when I first started to feel like someone was having batting practice on my abdomen. The following day, I was on the operating table. After the surgery, the doctor told me that if we had waited just a few more hours, my appendix would have ruptured… If I was in Kamashi, 14 hours from the capital… my chances of writing this blog would have been very slim.


So I have proven my point once again! This is why we are building this hospital. People in Kamashi die from appendicitis… they die from malaria… they die from basic stomach bugs… they die simply due to lack of access to healthcare…

Time Extension

We came to Ethiopia with the intention of volunteering for 6 months before heading on to travel around SE Asia for a while. Recently, our boss asked us to stay on with the project longer and we have decided to add another year to our original commitment. We will now be staying on as in-country project management until October 09. We will probably spend a month back in the states visiting everyone around February or March, so if you want to be blessed with our presence, mark the calendar now!

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