Acute Care Therapy In Kh
11/16/2007
The morning of the 15th started like any other. I got to CSC at about 7:15, had a noodle breakfast for $0.50, and changed into scrubs. I met Sorab as he was carrying out some sterilized equipment to the truck and we exchanged polite greetings. I also said “send me some patients.” He said “hey, come to Chenda and get the patients up and going.”
CSC is a non-profit NGO (non-governmental organization.) Their for profit arm is Chenda Polyclinic which is situated several miles away in the city. Even though the spine and hip surgeries Sorab was performing were non-profit, they were performed at Chenda, because of the better operating rooms there. And all of those patients had been lying around in bed since their surgeries.
For the next two days I was at Chenda doing acute care therapy. During rounds Sorab mentions that the patients are over medicated or otherwise were having trouble clearing up after anesthesia. Some had been there for three days and were still in a daze. He wasn’t impressed with the state of anesthesiology here. Getting these patients up was just as hard as getting acute patients in the US up which was a surprise to me. Although they complied, the made every excuse available and some even begged to not get up. But I got them up anyways, nausea and all.
To my surprise I see the Mr. Sok Sari, the head maintenance man here moving around some x-ray equipment. I think nothing of it till I hear him telling the patients to take a deep breath, etc… I peek into the x-ray room to see him taking x-rays. This big, burly man who is usually covered in grime is delicately positioning patients throughout the day. I ask Samath about this and he laughs, saying Dr. Jim sent him to Calmet Hospital to train on taking x-rays for three months previously.
Next week CSC is off for the entire week for the biggest holiday of the year, the Water Festival. On Friday Dr. Jim calls everyone into the office and tells us he wants therapy every day. I wasn’t in the meeting as again, I didn’t get the memo and was seeing patients, so this information was relayed to me by Samath. I said “no way. I’m unpaid and I’ve got plans to be out of town for the entire week. I’ll come in if I’m available this weekend, but that’s it.” Samath however, was resigned to coming in, even though he had planned to be out of town also.
After work Friday I went to a house warming ceremony/party for the new home my cousins were moving into. It was about fifteen minutes away from the uncle Chheang’s place and unfortunately, there aren’t any internet cafes or much of any stores around. It’s a big, three story townhouse. Each unit is only about twenty feet in width, but extends back a ways. I saw the orphan girl’s room and it was nicely furnished. The party consisted of all the relatives around coming over and having a multiple course meal catered at the front of the townhouse.
There were a hell of a lot of people and the feasting didn’t end till 9:30. I saw almost everyone I had previously met there to include Srey Pov’s mom and sister. She informed me that Srey Pov couldn’t make it because she was in school until 7:30 or so with her English class. They haven’t gone to the hospital to get her x-rays taken yet, because they didn’t know what to do and the father wanted to be there to take them. He is away working as some type of forestry manager or something.
I also saw all of my cousins, mostly girls, all under twenty, and all very pretty and dolled up. All of the women were so dressed and made up. I called Lyna and scolded her for not telling me I should have dressed up (here I am in jeans and my Ducati tee shirt.) She said the women have to be dressed up; the guys can come as slobs if they want. I looked around and found that Pirom was the only nicely dressed man. Everyone else was casually dressed or less.
