I arrived to do the ward round on Monday morning as usual at 8.00am to find a few new patients who had been admitted. There were three more young people who had been “chopped”. This happens very frequently when an argument occurs. There is such a culture of violence here in PNG. If someone is angry it seems to be their first instinct to grab their machete and cut someone. On the wards we only see the severe cases. Over the weekends it happens frequently. Last night a lady had been chopped by her husband – he had cut through one bone and nicked another and severed a nerve in her leg so as she had foot drop. This is a common place to be chopped (so as you cannot run away). She was able to gather enough money to be able to have surgery soon. Another man had had his hand chopped by a thief who stole his cellphone. A tendon was cut so he couldnt bend his ring finger. He again will have surgery. The third was a man whose wife had chopped him after an argument -she had cut through his bone and cut the nerve so as he had foot drop.
I do get anxious with all the violence but have been told that it usually happens between tribes or family members. They used to charge an extra violence fee on admission but then realized it penalized the victims so that was dropped.
After ward rounds I help out at the out patient clinic This week I also saw lots of ill patients One morning I only saw 7 patients but I saw two obvious cancers – one lady had a very hard indurated right breast with lymph nodes but her liver looked normal. I referred her to the surgeons. Another had a mandibular tumor which had spread to the lymph nodes in his neck. That same morning I did a blood test on someone who didn’t feel great and had to tell him he had HIV. I have also seen a lot of TB, pulmonary TB, Potts disease (TB of the spine ) and even TB of the skin.
We are getting used to the way of life here. On Monday and Tuesday nights it is pickle ball, Wednesday night is soccer, Thursday prayer meeting and Friday is kids movie night. We don’t attend everything – because I do call overnight once a week and do call until 8.00pm once a week. There is such a great group of doctors and maintenance staff here that have fun together. There is so much disease and violence the only way to cope is to have an outlet. The countryside is so beautiful – we keep saying its like National Geographic.
Saturday we went on a small hike 30mins to a swimming hole. The kids big and small) had fun jumping in the water and having a picnic. Later we went to supper with one of the doctors and his family.