Road trip with Sinele . . . . November 12, 2007

This morning I accompanied 7 patients and 4 staff members on an appointment trip to an Anti RetroViral (ARV) clinic at a nearby hospital. I very much wanted to go along, however I was concerned I might just be in the way.  The 'system'  at this Clinic was organized chaos at best.  Waiting is a simple fact of life.  Over 100 patients were booked for an appointment, all at 7:00 am !!  They allow only 8 into the room at one time, in order to minimize the spread of TB.  The patients are then instructed to find their own patient file and weigh themselves on the scale before reporting to the nurse for their appointment.
In the end, I did prove to be somewhat useful by communicating with the Clinic staff in English and helping to resolving some paperwork issues.
Since the Dream Centre patients are deemed the sickest patients, they are considered "priority" patients in that they skip the general waiting line when they arrive.  Apparently the line starts forming as early as 4:00 in the morning with people who have come from the surrounding areas to get HIV/AIDS testing and treatment. The young patient I escorted (early 20's, now both deaf and blind) sat patiently for almost 5 hours, only to have two nurses fail at several attempts to draw the required blood from her arms.   Without that blood test, she cannot begin the ARV process which could inevitably save her life.
Returning to the Dream Centre at 4:30, this beautiful young woman smiled and squealed with delight when I placed her hands on her own bed . . . we were home at last.

Add reaction

Name *:
E-mail *:	(will not be visible)
Content *:
Anti spam *:	Type the code on the left in the box below