Heather & the hospital…

May 13, 2009 | Category: India, Rajasthan, Volunteering | by: Heather

Heather, having the gaping (small) hole in her arm cleaned out.

It began with a dog-bite.  The poor girl was broken up pretty badly, her injuries swelling with infection.  She was scared and was finally letting me talk to her pet her, when I discovered that one of her wounds was full of maggots.  Ick.  When Julie came around, we tried to get a closer look at the extent of the dog’s injuries.  And well, you wouldn’t like it if someone started poking and prodding you when you were miserable and in pain either.  So she snapped, and I didn’t get out of the way quite fast enough, and ended up with a wrist poked full of holes.   After a quick washing up and bandaging job in the surgery prep room at Animal Aid, I got to ride in the animal ambulance to the people hospital.  Walked in.  Told someone at a desk why I was there.  They took down some basic info (I am now Heder on my Indian hospital records), and I paid for everything (minus drugs) right up front.  Then I got sent off to a consultation with a doctor.  He asked some questions about what happened, my vaccination history, etc.  And then without ever even looking at my arm, wrote me a prescription and sent me off to the pharmacy.  Eh?  I’m confused about what just happened, but proceed dutifully.  At the pharmacy I pick up all the things I’ve been told to take, and some things that they will need to treat me.  Ah, I get it now.  Back to a treatment room, Spence and the ambulance driver in tow,  where a nurse looks at the prescription in my hand, digs into the stuff I’ve just bought, and finally takes a look at my arm.  Ten minutes later my deep holes are all swabbed out with gobs of gauze pre-soaked in iodine, I have a rabies shot in my bum, and I’m excessively bandaged up again.  It aches like crazy.  At some point, the doctor did pop his head in for a minute, and at another point both Spence and the driver were on the tile floor, trying not to faint.  Didn’t like the sight of a few tendons and blood vessels, I guess.  And with that, we were off.  I took the rest of the day off, and am now taking all the scheduled injections of rabies vaccine.  It’s dang cheap here…might as well.

3 Comments

  1. Mom B
    on June 23rd, 2009
    1

    Wow/Yuk if there were really maggots(?) +worst yet, cutting + painful rabies shots. Please update-healing-report-OK?

  2. Reida
    on July 2nd, 2009
    2

    Haven’t heard a thing from you guys…maybe it’s because you’re DYING! of rabies. JK. Very interesting process at the clinic!

  3. Heather
    on July 4th, 2009
    3

    Ha ha. I’m ok. My wrist and hand swelled up nice and big, and then proceeded to heal really fast. Within 2 weeks of the bite, everything was closed up, and I now have 3 or 4 nice little scars. Souveneirs. :)

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