I was still in a state of excitement after yesterday's operation, but we have had another even more exciting and horrid event happen in our compound this morning. When everybody was having breakfast and preparing to go back to work, John came in and asked if any of us had taken his camera and mobile phone. He said he had lost these items, together with some of his belongings and his trousers. Ian immediately echoed that he had also found his trousers missing when he woke up this morning. He then returned to his room and discovered his camera and mobile phone had also disappeared. Someone had broken into the house last night. Later we found the trousers and John's toiletries left in the small laundry hut. Of course, all the valuables were gone. It was strange. We have two guards and one standby driver stationed in the compound at nighttime. Last night, we were back from the hospital late, at around 1am. We had some food and then I had a shower. I saw John resting on the balcony. He said goodnight to me before I went back to my room. He said he stayed there until 2am. I finished part of my diary and slept also around two. But I woke up at around 4:30am and completed my diary till 6am. I then slept for a while. Nothing special happened during that period. In fact, three of us live in the main house of the compound. John stays next to me and Ian is opposite. All three rooms are close to the main door and opposite the guardhouse. We usually do not lock our doors at night. The thief only stole from two of the rooms, not mine. That was lucky for me. I normally put my camera bag with my wallet next to me when I sleep. But last night I was so tired that I just left them on the table, which is next to the door. If someone had broken in, he could easily have collected everything without even entering into my room. We guessed that he must have come at the time I was writing my diary, so he had spared my room. Later on we went back to the hospital. I first went to the ICU and saw the pregnant woman with burns. She complained that the baby had not been moving since last night. We immediately found the midwife to review her. We found that the foetal heartbeat was lost. She was in early labour and we feared the baby might die. We later transferred her to the Benson Maternity and Child Hospital. I hoped the baby could survive but the chance was small. I learned that it was this woman's third pregnancy. Her first daughter died in our hospital last year, also because of burns. She might now lose her third child in the same way. We had twice changed dressings for her, and the wound looked well. We really didn't know why the baby was silent. I hoped the mother would be all right. I felt guilty that I had suggested observing the progress of the pregnancy, as the wounds were clean and superficial. We may not have needed too many wound debridements or anaesthesia procedures. If not, we could have delivered the baby earlier by Caesarean section. Later, I performed a closure of colostomy and reanastomosis for a young man who had surgery in our hospital for internal herniation and resection of the bowel last October. It seems that he knows someone in the hospital, who brought him to see us. As I said before, there are lots of patients discharged with no specific instructions or subsequent management plans. Some have defunctioning stoma for benign conditions. Once the acute event is over, these temporary stoma can be closed and the bowel continuity can be restored. Unfortunately, we see quite a lot of these stomas left unattended. Or the surgeons could not afford the time to close them in the past. Now there are always two surgical teams working here, it should be easier for us to arrange time for the closures. It is absolutely very difficult for these patients to carry the stomas in Liberia. Patients would not have any follow-up in hospital. Unfortunately, we do not have the records of these patients. We cannot call them back for review. If they are lucky, they know someone in the hospital and they can ask us to see them. Or they come back with complications. If we can find out the details of the pathology and procedures, we would try our best to help. Definitely, we should try to improve on this. Au Yiu Kai
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