In the midward

A woman is brought into the ward half conscious and having eclamptic fits. Out of all spectacles here, this tops the " extremely disturbing" list. To watch is to fear, to feel helpless. To feel awful. Dread runs its course through my body and buries itself in my heart. There it stays.

I help to lift her on a bed with one of her family members. She leaves quickly when we turn away and the woman is alone and now our responsibility. Abandoned. Its too bad my emergency skills workshop did not include this topic. I am so underprepared to deal with this.

She is trashing about and incoherent. How long as she been like this? How far has she come from? How bad did it get because the decision was made to bring her to Duncan? What gestation is she? Is she in labour? and so on. There is no one to answer these truthfully.

I have to turn away as she is tied to the bed. First her arms then her legs. She is pinned down to keep her still in the process. She does not realize what is happening to her and I am sure no one has told her. She would probably not understand if someone did as she is in her own world. Sometimes her eyes open but the looks is vacant.I wonder what she is thinking or if she is scared or if her mind is as blank as her look. She snores. The first time I saw this I actually thought the mom was sleeping through an IV I was doing. "High pain tolerance!" I thought. But no... she was having a fit.

I know that the baby is likely dead or if alive, will not fare well.An IV is started and the fetal heart rate is found.For how long I wonder. This cure includes delivery yet the women is still in the ward when I leave, eight hours later.I have barely glanced at her all day. Same for everyone else. There is no time in the midward for individualized attention and we do not have enough hands.

Women with eclampsia can lose their babies. Then they will be back the following year with the same complication. This week, we had a women who' s obstetrical history included 3 fetal deaths due to this complication. Her 4th baby was a neonatal death at home. She will be back and pregnant again. Families and husbands expect children but neither understand the costs and the reality of the mother' s health condition. A baby can not grow well in this kind of environment! Not without healthy mothers and prenatal care.

Sigh...I could use a glass of wine and a couple shots right now.

For those who are interested, here is some basic info on eclampsia:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000899.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclampsia


Leah