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Larry Ness is a doctor from Campbell River BC who went out to work in our clinics for a month in October 2009, read an entry detailing one of his medical episodes.
Email from Dr. Larry Ness
I am writing this email from Lilongwe. I thought I would send you one more interesting story before we leave to come back to Canada.
On our last night at Ngodzi, at about 9 PM during a power outage, Hope & I were talking at the mission house when we were called for an emergency. An un-named unconscious male looking to be in his 30s was brought in by some passerbys. They did not know him and had absolutely no history of what had happened. He was wet and covered with sand. Shortly after arrival he went into a full-blown grand-mal seizure. So, in the dark, with a couple of dimly lit flashlights in the hot humid evening buzzing with mosquitoes, we (myself, Hope, Erick, Tryness, Violet, and Janet) worked on him. Erick was suctioning him with manual foot pump suction while Hope and I got an IV line in place. Janet was able to find a vial of diazepam and we gave him 5 mg IV push promptly. This temporarily stopped the seizure and allowed us to insert an oral airway and further suction him better. We then checked his vital signs (afebrile, tachycardic, normal BP) and did a quick examination with nothing unusual found. Specifically, no neck stiffness, no evidence of head trauma, and no obvious smell of alcohol. Chest was clear and abdomen soft. Pupils were pinpoint and equal. He then began to seizure again and was given another 5 mg of IV diazepam. He was then otherwise stable but remained unconscious. By this time Maurice had arrived with the ambulance. While Erick wrote out the history and transfer form, we loaded him into the ambulance. Hope accompanied Maurice for the trip to Salima in case he began to seize again or wake up and become combative. Hope had another vial of diazepam along if needed. The next morning he reported no problems on the trip to Salima and that the patient started to become more conscious but not to the level where he was uncomfortable with the oral airway. Hope said that at Salima Hospital, as he was otherwise stable, he was simply placed in a bed and would not be assessed by the doctor until the AM.
That was the last I heard of him until, on our way into Lilongwe with Limbani, Erick called on the cell phone to report that the patient had been discharged from Salima Hospital and had come by the clinic to thank everyone for helping him the night before. Erick took a picture of him with his cell phone and was trying to send it to us but was unable to. He didn't give any more details but most probably this guy had drunk himself into an unconscious state and then had the seizures.
I think there was a good possibility that, without being brought in by the passerbys and the treatment received from us; he could have died from this episode!
Mike Hetherman, one of Lifeline Malawi’s Board of Directors took his first trip out to our clinics in November 2009 to be present when Prince Albert II of Monaco came to open the Special Wing of our AMOR Maternity Unit. Read his journal about his trip to Malawi.
Summary of my first trip to Lifeline Malawi. Arrival Nov. 8th 2009
By Mike Hetherman
Flew with Chris Brooks from Jo’burg and greeted by Heather, Chloe, Pat and Ann.
Travelled with Pat and Ann – Drove around Lilongwe and got settled. Planned to shadow Pat rest of the week. Speaking to Pat it feels as if we have to get 3 months of work done in 48 hrs to be ready to receive our honored guests.
Monday:
First thing meet Gift, Haldon, Wycliffe, Limbani, Thoko, Chris, Pat and Ann for morning prayer. I thought to myself this is great way to start the week. After prayer the real work kicked in. We have Prince Albert II of Monaco coming and the Vice President of Malawi. The “Protocol People” from Monaco and Foreign Affairs for Monaco and Malawi were still communicating on all the plans and we were in “full steam ahead” mode.
Before anything starts we (Pat, Gift, Haldon and myself) are heading to the Vice President’s office for a meeting with her staff. As we talk with her two key people, more keep coming, we end the meeting with six people including “Protocol People”. At this point we realize that this is really happening and how significant this really is for all of us. Can we make it happen?
Next, off to the airport to pick up Phillip, the Prince’s advance team, Tasha, Pascal, David and Dr. Cecil Duval, from Pasteur Institute. Needed to get them all settled in and “at home” so we could focus on Phillip and the Prince’s protocol. Crazy meetings and we have just begun! Gift takes the lead and meets with VP Protocol, Foreign affairs Protocol and Phillip – Prince’s Protocol. The plans start to change…we had 100’s of changes between now and event!
Did I mention these is no diesel in the country, and it feels like I have been here a month!
Tuesday:
Start at 6am. We have to find fuel and get to Wamkulu palace to pick up Protocol people, Tasha and team to go to advance through Kasese clinic. 26 seater coaster was to be there for 7am. It is 9am by the time they have enough fuel to get us to clinic.
Again we are flying. Throughout all of this Pat and Gift just keep making magic happen, things “just appear”.
When we arrived Marian and other nurses were in their white uniforms in rubber boots scrubbing the bottoms of the outside of the buildings, what a team! Actually the whole Kasese team had been hustling to make our clinic look fantastic and it looked AMAZING, job very well done.
We find out the President would like to meet the Prince and everything changes again. More protocol people, press buses required “red carpet” honor guard at airport playing Monaco National Anthem. Gift the “GET’ER DONE” machine has to get the anthem to honor guard. Did I mention we found out that our flags were the wrong size and he found a guy to make flags in less then 24 hrs for the poles and cars! He’s an amazing resource out here.
The Prince will now go to the state house etc and schedule changes again. He was given the President’s motorcade including the Presidents HumVee. We are now the hottest thing in Malawi. Prince Albert II of Monaco, President, VP we have everyone wanting to come. We had every major player from Ministry of Health, Nursing, Aids, Maternity, etc etc. It felt crazy. Did I mention our custom podium and stage? Tents, private lunch and green room all had to happen Tuesday before we went to sleep. We now estimate we will have 50 – 70 dignitaries. Oh did I mention the ARMY? We go to bed exhausted. Feel like I’m two months in.
Wednesday, THE DAY:
Wake up at 5:30am and changes are already coming. Today things will be out of our control, just a matter of getting everything done as demanded for this to work. Pat, Gift, Haldon, Ann and I’m sure the rest of the team were just dealing with everything as it hits them. Just found out Prince’s arrival at 8:10 is now 9:45am…...we just kept dealing with things minute by minute as needed. It was so wild I can’t even figure out how to communicate.
Now a few God moments. Because the timelines were pushed back, Pat and I had lots of opportunities to network with some very important people. We would never get these audiences but they had to wait for the VP so were a “captured audience” for us;
Private tour of William, VP press secretary. Discussions with all the leaders in the health sector below Minister of Health. In the green room before the VP we had MOH, Ministers for Nursing, Minister of Aids, Minister of maternity etc. These people can really affect our future in big ways. Pat did an AWESOME job conversing with all these folks.
We had three motorcade greetings. Minister of Health, VP and Prince. These arrivals were spread out from 11:30 MOH, 12pm VP and 12:30 Prince. I won’t go into the details but for those of you know it takes about 60 minutes to get to Kasese. The motorcades with police escorts sirens etc were 30 minutes!
Pat and I had a really fantastic discussion with the Brigadier General of the Malawi Army. Yes I said the BG of the Army. He is very powerful and said the same thing everyone else was saying, “We have to be here”. We couldn’t miss it if all the players were going to be there.
Now, did I mention the power was out all morning? That means no water or lights…ahh the details. The team jumped into action with water buckets for the toilets etc….but how do you feed all these people without working kitchen? Caterers were amazing. GOD had our back. So then Gift tells us we will have power and water in 5 minutes. We ask how and can you be sure? Gift introduces me to the guy in charge of power and water for Malawi. Of course, he said there is NO WAY the VP and Prince won’t have water or power. Hopped on his cell and 5 minutes later we had everything working. What a rush…. OK so I have missed TONS of details but hopefully this gives you an idea of the pace and pulse of the morning. I could not be any prouder of our team.
So if you can imagine we have the stage with metal roof, flowers, red carpets everywhere, national flags blowing. There are hundreds of kids, the traditional music playing over loudspeakers, the traditional ladies (probably 50 +) dancing and singing and security from the local police, state police, and the Army…they were hidden in the bushes and all around the Kasese perimeter.
Pat and I are with Minister of Health and other Health ministers in green room including the person in charge of NAC proposals….did I mention God is Good. We get word the VP is about to arrive. Out to the red carpet for second greeting. Meet the VP and take her to the Green room. Pat does real nice job welcoming and presenting her a gift from Lifeline. By the way all the key people said the same thing “they couldn’t believe what they were experiencing. They said they were very impressed with Lifeline. Awesome….did I mention God is good. Anyway,
The Prince is here. Arrives to total chaos …there are more people then we could count. Another red carpet, cut the ribbon, tour the facility…picture, picture, picture run the red carpet, speeches lots of cool stories here……..and now lunch. It’s 2:30. How the caterers kept everything perfect is beyond me but they did a great job!!!
During Lunch I had the pleasure of being in the dining room with the Prince and VP. Probably 15 people total. Chris did a great job. Lunch seemed quite calm considering all the chaos . I sat with Linga, VP special advisor and Joia who is with Partners in Health, friend of the VP and Faculty at Harvard. See is very interested in following up with Pat and Chris.
A few words from Chris, dessert and that’s it. Meet the press session with Prince and VP few photos and off they go…WOW what an experience. Praise God for assembling such a great group at Lifeline Malawi. The whole team was incredible. Everyone in Malawi now knows who we are. Pat will have many meetings to learn how we officially start partnering with the government. The VP personally said they need to stay connected with Lifeline. COOL.
Dinner with Gift, Haldon, Heather, Chloe, Chris, Pat and Ann to debrief and celebrate. I feel bad that I have missed some stories and I’m sure more will come.
Thursday:
Spent the day with Gift and Haldon touring Ngodzi, visiting SP team with Jack and the pit latrines built for a couple of village schools. Again teams great. We had a scary experience on the highway when Haldons truck had three bolts shear of the rim and we had the tire fall off. Now we are stranded on the road and sun is setting. WE DEFINITELY NEED TRANSPORTATION. Thankfully none of us were hurt and Wycliffe came and rescued us.
Friday:
Had breakfast and a nice meeting with Chris and Heather. Really good discussions about the week as well as the future.
On plane to Jo’Burg.
