Jungle Ulcers

Tuesday

Today, was more of the same! We arrived at the clinic, and though it was a bit less busy than yesterday, we were still receiving a steady stream of patients that needed medications and injections. Today, a small schoolboy (about 5 years old) who was walking home, was hit by a motorbike. He was brought to the clinic, and was seen by us to bandage his wounds. He was so frightened and obviously traumatized by the whole experience. We tried to comfort him and gave him a car to play with. We have noticed how dangerous some of the drivers of these motorbikes are because they do not even slow down when there is a person on the road. Another case we saw today, was a lady who came to the clinic because she had burned her hand. When she came to us so that we could bandage the wound, we noticed that she had a leaf on it (by the look of it, it had been on the wound for several days). We see this often at the clinic- they try native medicine, which usually consists of leaves and stuffing cotton in the wounds. By the time they come to the clinic, the wounds + leaves + cotton = “jungle ulcer” – a festering wound that looks somewhat like a pussy, swollen, volcano on the skin. (In 2008, I saw this exact injury on an old woman. The wound had been there for 5 years. It is obvious that “jungle ulcers” are a direct result of lack of first aid education. The fact that they are malnutritioned further inhibits their ability to heal). A man also came into the clinic who had a burn between his thumb and his pointer finger. He had stuffed the wound with cotton and then poured some sort of purple ointment all over it. According to Ezekiel, this purple ointment is called “Jibi” and it is a natural/native ointment that people commonly use for burns. By the look and the smell of the wound, the “Jibi” did not seem to have any effect on the staph infection raging in his hand. After a long day’s work, we came home to a meal of cassava leaf soup with goat over rice (yum!).