Midnight at 5 O'clock

 The atmosphere at an average polyclinic or hospital in Ghana is always unpredictable. In the corridors to the wards you may find health promotion flyers on the walls, wheelchairs in one corner which requires your relatives to push since it needs no drivers license to operate. Junior officers and interns briskly pacing up and down and senior officers discussing issues at the alternate end. If you dream to work in a hospital, this atmosphere of scrubs and white cloaks is a motivation. It is a spectacle to behold until the frame of the lens snaps. 

Ambulances are scarce here. You can actually set up a clinic or hospital here without ambulance. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made Heaven and earth to make everything possible. Yes, we are the living legends. Hospitals seldom have more than two ambulances. If you see more than this number er check the tyres, it's often flat and left for landmark or design with dust all over. Try the litmus test by pouring water on a parked ambulance and see the colour go from brown to white. 

Let me tell you about one Friday. Let's call it the good Friday. If you're a catholic you can still enjoy your meat as you read, you'd still meet God in heaven ok. 

On this day the whole hospital came to a standstill. Like an invisible film director shouted freeze!!!  I have already told you about the ambulance situation. So in came a patient, Yaw. Yaw means a male born on Thursday. He was nineteen years and in his first year high school. 

Yaw was brought in at the back of a tricycle, popularly called "aboboyaa" over here. Yaw was in a white shirt but the tricycle, the rider and Yaw himself were all stained red. Blood everywhere. I had not seen so much blood ever. He was rushed to the emergency unit. Interns literally sprinted to call their bosses. All hands were needed. Every muscle available was lifted. 

Yaw had an opening in his chest. Eye witnesses say he was shot. OK no, he got in the way of a stray bullet.  The bullet really  was not in him, probably it was still going astray. 

On a stretcher he was being wheeled up into the theatre and at that moment the ugliest convoy ever  entered the hospital. It was of three taxis, two more tricycles and a van. Whatever was happening outside the hospital was bigger than we could ever prepare for. Soon the police came by and the whole place was full of cars owned by the police service and their men on guard. The  police denied the shooting but said Yaw was hit by a stray bullet. 

Physicians on duty wished they could spilt themselves into two each. That is not possible, of course some barely look whole enough. Many slim and average sized with the exception of Dr. Oteng who with his potbelly leading him had  tried to walk fast but his belly weighed too much he had to stop at the stairs and rest a bit. Don't ask me about lifts. We still use mercury filled sphygmomanometers. 

Let me not bore you but we cleaned those we can and called for an ambulance. As much as we could get, knowing we will get not more than two. Patients that we could not handle were being sent in cars owned by staff to the teaching hospital as we awaited the ambulance. 

Yaw's mother showed up. Confused and crying. She had sent him on an errand. She was waiting at home only to be told his son has been brought here. How? Why? For what? Her questions were many. Maybe she's not used to nurses when there is an emergency. You get to ask one good question and you better not waste that chance. Oh they didn't even mind her. Poor woman. 

In few hours Yaw was stable. He was on oxygen. After a very short while of 3 hours an ambulance had arrived. From another constituency. Yaw was put in it and the emergency team said they have but not enough oxygen but it will be enough to get him to the teaching hospital before it's exhausted. That reminds me on a day an ambulance came and it had only the driver without any other staff. The driver and the patient were separated by a metal partition. Oh don't stress your mind, the patient died that evening. Back to Yaw. 

I washed my hands and changed. I was heading home and saw the ambulance at the next junction to the hospital. I was shocked to see it had broken down. They had called another ambulance. This time a private one. Actually the private ambulances can get you space at the teaching hospital even when the constituency ambulance gets there and they tell you there is no bed space. 

Yaw had already been in the ambulance for more than 30 minutes. His oxygen was running out. It was five pm but it felt like midnight. The light at the end of his tunnel was dimming. I prayed and wished he makes it. 

Let me pause here. I'll tell you the rest in my next post