Aira Hospital

We are expecting the spare parts to arrive today from Addis Abeba. If God is willing we might be able to repair the sterilizer at least temporarily so that we can be back on the track with surgical activities as before.

This night we did a Cesarean on a woman who came in the last minute with obstructed labor. The uterus was on the verge of rupture with a tense Bandl’s ring (a sign of impending rupture). The nurse in charge thought she could hear faint fetal heart beats. We did not waste time to check with ultrasound since there was no electricity and it takes too long time to get the generator started.

The relief was great when a live baby was delivered – the nurse ululated of joy!

As the procedure was done in a hurry the assistant – Adei Tsehaye (Mamma Sunshine) – got injured by the needle. The fear is always contamination with HIV.

Some time ago we had a visiting gynecologist from Sweden who was particular worried by that risk. We started then to screen all surgical patients in the operating room before surgery. The test takes only a couple of minutes and you have the result instantaneously. After screening more than 1000 with only one patient testing positive we have stopped the screening.

Now we only test in case of incidents like the above. The patient tested negative as expected - another sight of relief that night.

Mother and child are doing fine this first day after surgery.