Day 306: Rejuvenated

If I could sum up my trip to Gardez in one word, the word would be "rejuvenating". For the last 7 months I've been working around the same people and have become woefully familiar with the surroundings of Camp Clark. You can only do and see so much on a base the size of a couple of football fields! I had to go somewhere, anywhere! And what better place than to visit the regional hospital that I refer Afghan Army patients to here in Eastern Afghanistan.


Here I am playing the tourist and taking the token picture in front of the sign! But, my trip was more than a relaxing getaway as I spent lots of time exploring the hospital and getting a feel for the scope of services that are offered at the hospital. Also, I spent some time with the Air Force medical mentoring team that was assigned to the hospital. I amazed to find that there was a US mentor assigned to almost every section of the hospital...laboratory, pharmacy, radiology, nursing, admin, medical warehouse, and an Emergency Room physician. I was so jealous since I have been a mentoring team of ONE!


Here is a picture of myself along with the entire Paktiya Regional Hospital mentoring team which was primarily an Air Force manned team.


Although I tried to get away from work I just had to be visiting Gardez when a pregnant Afghan woman, who was in labor and completely dilated, was evacuated to the hospital (see the medevac helo above). I was told that a case like this had rarely, if ever, came to the military hospital. Apparently, no one on the medical mentoring team was comfortable managing a laboring mom so they called me. It was nice to feel needed, but it did cut into my internet and tea time:)


Well, it had been almost a year since I had delivered a baby so I was a little nervous. This was also compounded by the fact that I was a foreign male performing obstetrical care on an Afghan woman which is not what they are accustomed to. After getting the patient settled in, I had learned that this was her 5th or 6th birth, she had no prenatal care, and her blood pressure was in the 200s! I popped the ultrasound on her and confirmed that the head was down and there was a fetal heart beat. So we started to push as I thought this baby would pop out in a jiffy...


Well I was completely wrong...a jiffy turned into 3 hours and mom was starting to get extremely tired which resulted in very weak pushes. We had no surgeons qualified to perform a C-section so to make a long story short we ended up transferring her to a civilian obstetrician in the middle of laboring! Thankfully, a healthy baby boy ended up being delivered hours later without a surgery or any other significant complications. Whoa...talk about an exciting patient care experience in Afghanistan.


Outside of that excitement, the rest of my trip was rather informative and relaxing. Here's a picture of me sitting at the top of a sandbag barrier overlooking a herd of goats grazing. It was actually very peaceful and soothing to observe. Overall, a very memorable and productive trip.

"Peace, peace, to those far and near, says the LORD. And I will heal them."
Isaiah 57:19 NIV