I'm now waiting at Brussels Airport for a transit flight to Paris for the debriefing at MSF-France Office. It was still tough on my last day at Mamba Point. I had to repair a complete tear of the vagina and rectum of a woman after a night of obstructed labour and was woken again at 2am for another C-section. In the early morning, I spent an hour with the Field Coordinator and the Medical Coordinator for my end of mission evaluation. I am glad that I was well received by the staff, especially the national staff in the hospital. They had asked me to extend my mission and I hope I may have the chance to come again next year. This morning, I was in the OT. I was supposed to end my last two operations at Mamba Point with Jam. One was chronic osteomyelitis with sequestrectomy and the other was a step reduction of an exomphalos. I left the OT at 12:15pm, went to the office, and got my passport and air ticket. Then I returned to the hospital and said farewell to the staff and my patients. When I was with my little Kumba (the girl with an imperforated anus) and her mother, I received a phone call from Dr Laura of Benson Hospital. She told me she was operating on a woman with a large uterine fibroid. She thought she had perforated the bowel and would like us to have a look. I told her I was leaving at 3pm but I would sort out someone from Mamba Point to come and help. Finally Jam was sent to Benson to help and I stayed to finish the list. There were another two dressings left for the four newly admitted burn cases from the day before. All the staff in OT helped me and I managed to finish before 2:15pm. They forced me to go. I had some food, a quick shower and then packed up all my things. I could just catch the car at 3pm to the airport. Thus ended my last day in Monrovia. I must thank my wife Anita, my son Andrew, my boss Dr Helen Tinsley, my beautiful secretary Clara and all the staff in OLMH and MSF-HK for their support of my mission. I enjoyed the work at Mamba Point very much. It is the first time I have found all my previous knowledge and training so useful. Although I have performed hundreds of operations, yet I still think I can do so little for the people in Liberia. We operated on so many patients coming in with very bad conditions. Surprisingly, many survived with a good recovery. But sadly, other patients die so suddenly for unknown reasons. Au Yiu Kai
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