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Published: June 13th 2018
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View from Paeds departmentAnother day at the hospital. Today was a bit longer and we finished at 11:30 am. But I saw about twice as many patients. There was another child with sickle cell anaemia, one with asthma, a couple of vomiting babies and a toddler who had taken her parent's anti-psychotic medication. I got to talk to one of the boys with sickle cell about his condition and how it affects him, and I got to listen to a heart murmur on the other boy. I also learnt that every baby in the last 20 years is tested for sickle cell at birth because it is just so common here.
It was also super sad because the second boy needed antibiotics, but his parents couldn't afford the good, specific one, so they've had to give him some less effective ones that were a bit cheaper. They also don't give out laxatives because they are expensive, so they just give the children lots of mangoes and prunes. They also don't give out PPI medication to protect the stomach from ulcers when they prescribe an NSAID like they do in the UK, instead they try to use suppositories to help protect the stomach or
just tell the patient to eat a meal before the medication; again because it's too expensive to prescribe two drugs so people wont take them. There's a lot of things they can't or won't do because people can't afford all of the tests and treatments. Even a nose spray for allergies is too expensive, so they prescribe an inhaler and teach the patient to breathe quickly out of their nose after taking a puff, because that is a cheaper way to do it.
I also saw a baby with a rare kidney disease that needs a daily albumin infusion to live long enough to have a kidney transplant. However, the hospital doesn't have any albumin, the pharmacy didn't have any. The doctors whipped out the yellow pages and started ringing other medical facilities and pharmacies to see if any had some. In the end, there's none on the island, so they will have to import it, and it could take days to weeks before the baby gets any treatment. And then, they have to find a kidney which will be even harder.
So I'm learning about some new conditions and how the health care system is struggling here.
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View from hospital grounds On the bright side, the views from the hospital grounds are amazing.
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