An update on the hospital rounds

It's been another busy week for me doing the rounds in the hospital. Here's an update on some of the cases (I'm using initials rather than names, just to make sure I don't breach anyone's confidentiality: it's really hard to explain to people what a 'blog' is and, as I mentioned in a previous post, most people are quite suspicious of what photographs are being used for here)

Anyway, here are a couple of updates:

• I mentioned a very sad case concerning a young man named A. He had been in the hospital for some weeks with an undiagnosed mass around the kidneys. A. seemed to be a lovely young man, I guess in his early-twenties, but we were watching him grow thinner and thinner, and weaker and weaker, day by day, and there was still no firm diagnosis. It was suggested to him last weekend that he might like to go home, and so his family took him back to his home village to face the end there.
  
  
• Some good news though: I also mentioned a man named F. He came in to the hospital for a wound on his leg initially but, while that was being treated, suddenly (that is, within the space of an hour) started to experience muscle spasms: by the end of the day, there had been some sort of neurological break-down, so that he couldn't talk, and his arms, legs and fingers remained clenched. That was 6 months ago now, and here he still is, lying in bed. Semi-paralysed, I guess. Anyway, the good news is that two days ago for the first time he started to speak: just a few (hard to decipher) sounds, but it definitely represents progress. And there's also been a chance for him to go to the 'kinesthesie' bloc (physiotherapy) for some minor stretches and movements. I'm really pleased.

(One of the reasons this is a particularly sad case is that F. has a 3 year old boy, J. He's naturally stuck here at the hospital with nothing to do, so we play around with a ball and other things. I've asked permission to take and show a photo, so here he is!):

And in his usual pose, kicking or throwing something around the hospital grounds:

• Another young friend called S: he comes from N'gaounde're, a city in the middle of the country, but had a clondo accident ('clondos' are taxi-motorbikes that you see shooting around everywhere with passengers on the back; unfortunately, many of the accidents that come in to the hospital seem to occur as a result of them). A car went into the back of him, and then carried one, leaving him lying in the road. He's had one leg amputated, and the other is being pinned in the hope of saving it.

Please pray for these patients and many others too. 

And finally, here's a photo with my two friends the 'aumoniers', having a glass of fanta after work!