Babies, Egyam Orphanage and Green Turtles

Have had a bit of a crazy week this week! It has been my last week on the paediatric ward. On Monday during the ward round a mother started shouting and wailing so loudly and wouldn't stop for ages until she was sent off the ward, sadly her child had just passed away from 'breathing difficulties'. What I find so hard here is that so many people die unnecessarily simply due to a lack of equipment - there is no resuscitation equipment in the hospital and no monitors to detect when a person is deteriorating, and not enough staff to keep an eye on all the sick patients. There was hardly any response to this child passing away and ward round continued as normal, with staff seeing the mother as an inconvenience for disrupting the routine. Later that morning three children came in at the same time, all critically ill, and not enough was being done quickly enough as there is not really any sense of urgency so it can be very frustrating.

I spent Tuesday on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit just for the day. There were 3 tiny very premature triplets all squeezed in one incubator, definitely adorable! Again the mortality rates for neonates are so much higher here in Ghana simply due to a lack of equipment and babies die from things which they would never die from in the UK.

Today was a really interesting day, I spent it on the delivery ward (infection control in England would have a field day) and saw 3 babies being born Africa-style. 2 of them had to be resuscitated as they were very blue and not breathing when they were born. The women in labour get NO pain relief whatsoever, and they are not allowed anyone with them until after the baby has been delivered, even the fathers. The women all are in labour in one room together, then when they are fully dilated they have to pick up their plastic sheet, walk through to the delivery room with no dignity at all, have their babies then walk back through to another room where they are later joined by their baby if it is well enough. The midwives slap the women if they make too much noise. I saw a few rather bloody procedures which they did without anaesthetic too, I honestly don't quite know how the women withstood it!!

This afternoon went to Egyam Orphanage with a few people from the WTW house, which was amazing. There are about 50 children there. We took toys and rice to donate. We played with the kids for a while, was so much fun! We took hula hoops but they didn't know what to do with them. Really puts into perspective how much we have and how fortunate we are.

Last weekend me and 7 other girls from the house spent the weekend at one of Ghana's favourite backpacker haunts called Green Turtle Lodge, about an house West along the coast from our base in Takoradi. We stayed in a round mud hut type thing about 30 meters away from the sea. It was so beautiful.

Am really enjoying my time here, it is going so quickly. Am missing home quite a bit too especially on days when bad stuff has happened at the hospital!
Hope you are all enjoying the World Cup - if England play Ghana I may have to stay indoors for a week.
Lots of love from Ella xxx