Mr. Manneh, Sorry to hear about your younger brother going thru' such trauma. Wishing him a quick recovery! As a word of consolation: to non-medical people what may seem lethal may turn out to be a trifle in the eyes of the professionals. Take it from me that a majority of those who have taken The Hippocratic Oath will never want to lose a single life! Your brother's case is a very typical scenario under third world conditions. Another factor is having seen a lot of trauma and of course blood, many Doctors are 'not moved' so to speak. A woman might be dying from septicemia(beautiful word, but lethal) and the gynaecologist knowing he/she cannot save the delivering/pregnant woman will seldom go into frenzy! That does not make them cold-hearted! I think the nurse at the Serrekunda Health Centre did a great job, by giving him the drip. And the Cuban Dr, if he had assessed your brother's condition as critical, would have kept him. This of course does not justify the hardships encountered by our people on a daily basis when seeking health care. Be strong! Sanyang. The Hippocratic Oath You do solemnly swear, each by whatever he or she holds most sacred That you will be loyal to the Profession of Medicine and just and generous to its members That you will lead your lives and practice your art in uprightness and honor That into whatsoever house you shall enter, it shall be for the good of the sick to the utmost of your power, your holding yourselves far aloof from wrong, from corruption, from the tempting of others to vice That you will exercise your art solely for the cure of your patients, and will give no drug, perform no operation, for a criminal purpose, even if solicited, far less suggest it That whatsoever you shall see or hear of the lives of men or women which is not fitting to be spoken, you will keep inviolably secret These things do you swear. Let each bow the head in sign of acquiescence And now, if you will be true to this, your oath, may prosperity and good repute be ever yours; the opposite, if you shall prove yourselves forsworn. -This oath is a version approved by the American Medical Association. >From: Dave Manneh <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: The Phantom Hospitals and soccer-crazed Doctors >Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 10:45:54 +0100 > They got him into Serre Kunda >Hospital/Health Centre at 17:00GMT.By 19:00 >a young nurse came in and saw his condition and was shocked that he had not >been seen to. She immediately asked for him to be taken inside. She put him >on a drip and sat him on a chair. The doctor asked for Bekai to be taken >into the "theatre", but as it has >always the case the whole evening, there was no specialist to operate the >machinery. He then looked at Bekai's injured head, cleaned and dressed it. >That stopped the bleeding. He then looked at his face and mouth and >exclaimed how swollen it was, and that unfortunately there were no free >beds >in the hospital for Bekai to stay overnight. Bekai was given some >injections and some tablets to take. An hour passed and still the bed >situation was unresolved, the doctor now asked them to take Bekai with them >back home to Brufut and to return this morning. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~