Burn Victims

Just came back from my internship at the health post, and I can honestly say that it was one of the hardest but most rewarding days I’ve had yet. Today I opted to work at the Salle de Pancement for the first time, or wound-dressing room, where we get burns, deep cuts and other bloody messes we need to clean up, treat and apply dressings to. It was incredibly crowded today, and I was on my feet patching people up for five hours straight, from 8am to 1pm, and so I’m pretty exhausted, especially since I only had about 3 hours of sleep last night.

It’s amazing how much I got to do there without any training whatsoever — they simply need the hands, and so they got me working and figuring things out as I went along, rather than taking out a block of time to teach things to me. I normally like to learn things methodically and make sure not to make any mistakes along the way, but I’m quickly learning to just dive into things and be messy, to figure things out for myself and just make sure that I can be useful.

A lot of the people we got in the health post today had been seriously burned. The first person I helped out was an older woman in her 60s, who had completely raw, red flesh throughout her left arm, as well as her whole left breast. She was in such intense pain and shook so violently that I was more useful by holding her hand and keeping her steady than by doing anything clinical. While holding her hand, I felt my whole body shaking in sync to her’s, and as I watched her keep silent through the obvious suffering, I definitely witnessed the Senegalese value of being strong, holding pain in and getting through difficulties without calling out or complaining.

I saw some other things today, but another that sticks into my mind is a brother and sister pair around my age who both had their arms, legs and faces badly burned, again with the raw, red flesh that contrasted so visibly with their dark skin. Their faces were quite literally peeling off in flakes, and I felt uncomfortable for the first few moments seeing them, hoping that their faces would heal properly and not become permanently disfigured. It’s amazing how quickly discomfort can disappear though, and after a short time, my mind was just focused on helping them the best I can, and making sure they weren’t in too much pain. I just hope I did a good job.

Lots of things went through my mind today — the concept of caregiving, Senegalese values, and where the hell they were getting all of these burns from. I think a lot of them were from cooking accidents, since a lot of Senegalese cooking is over an open gas portable stove that can easily topple over, but I was too chicken to ask how the brother and sister got their faces burned.

Another thing to chew on: Though I love my work at the health post, I was a little disappointed in the beginning of the semester to see how well-run the clinic was, only because I knew that I was working at the exception, not the rule. It sounds kind of silly, because being in a well-run charity organization is obviously better than being in a badly-run one, but considering the state of the health system in Senegal, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have any insight into healthcare in Senegal being in a place that seems to be the anomaly. Today, I finally felt really good about being at a place like Centre de Saint Laurent, when around 1pm, two obviously poor men came strolled into the room to get their wounds redressed. If people who normally wouldn’t have access to good healthcare can come to a health post that I work at simply to get their wounds cleaned, treated and bandaged up for free by me, then I think I’m doing a good day’s work.