When Nurse Becomes Patient!

Karen:

Christmas was always going to be a bit different this year with us being in Africa…but we had not quite expected the festive period to be quite how it’s panned out! Our plans of a pre-Christmas safari, Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day BBQ were somewhat disrupted when I fell victim to Ugandan germs and was struck down with a bout of horrendous food poisoning. Never one to do things by halves, a sequence of dramas unfolded – it has been a surreal two weeks!

Upon waking one morning feeling a little nauseated, I attributed it to my own cooking the previous evening. Debbie felt fine and so I thought nothing more of it and off to work we went. As the morning progressed, I felt increasingly unwell and our ward Dr insisted on a malaria screen…we were astounded when it came back positive and cursing the savage mosquito!

So home to bed I went as Debbie went to get the relevant malaria medication from the local pharmacy before returning to play nurse. Despite the medication, I became sicker and our bedroom soon transformed into a mobile health clinic! Unable to tolerate oral medication, poor Debbie had to stab me with needles and put me on a drip with my mosquito net pole becoming a drip stand! With advice, intravenous quinine was commenced to treat the malaria…what I now realize is an incredibly potent drug with harsh side effects. My condition continued to deteriorate as I became increasingly dehydrated and it was decided that I needed hospitalising, Expecting to be transferred to Kampala, we were thrown into turmoil when the insurance company informed us that I would be airlifted to Nairobi, Kenya…within the hour!

As I lay delirious on my bed, Debbie frantically threw some belongings into a bag, liaised with our UK and Uganda colleagues, made alternative arrangements for the dog we were looking after, and somehow managed to preserve her sanity! Before we knew it we were at Gulu Airstrip, accompanied by our friend and colleague Dr Lucas, who along with Debbie was to be my medical escort! Our micro plane landed, out jumped a very jolly pilot called Howard, who ushered us immediately on board. Definitely the most informal airport I have ever passed through – no check in, no paper work, no security, nothing! And off we went on the 60minute flight from the north to the south of the country. It was a shame I felt too unwell to enjoy the flight as the views across the lush landscape of Uganda interrupted only by the meandering Nile were quite spectacular!

We landed at a small airstrip where an ambulance met us for the transfer to the international airport. Whilst I was whisked off into the waiting air ambulance, Debbie had the anguishing task of getting us through passport control minus tickets.

Debbie:

At Entebbe airport Karen stayed in the ambulance while I went to show our passports to security. A very ‘direct’ lady said that I was to leave Karen in the ambulance, take all of our bags and go through security and passport control stating that I was on the AMREF (medical transfer) flight. Sounded like a simple task (apart from trying to carry our 4 bags!) but somehow it turned into a bit of a pantomime! I have never met so many blank faces before in my life! At the main door the man had never heard of AMREF, Security had never heard of AMREF or air ambulance. After a slight argument with 3 people security let me through to the next hurdle which came in the shape of the Immigration desk who had never heard of AMREF and told me to go back to the first ‘direct’ lady………frustrations and emotions running high I then went to the passenger help desk who proved to be very unhelpful….this was all too much and I had a mini emotional breakdown!!! In Uganda people don’t really show emotion very freely so the airport workers probably thought I was going mad (which was actually quite possible). I ended up having to harass poor Karen on the phone as she tried to rest in the ambulance. It turned out the flight was waiting for me and soon the Captain of the plane came to rescue me! One of the ‘helpful’ airport staff then sent him to Gate 2, saying that I was waiting there so about 20 minutes later we finally found each other. Immigration were only too happy to let me through with our flying Doctor friends who were all brilliant.

Karen:

The air ambulance was smaller again – enough room for the crew of 2 doctors, Nurse Debbie, the captain, his co-pilot, and myself the patient. The plane was so sophisticated that had James Bond appeared with a martini in hand he would not have been out of place – and I think Debbie could have done with a medicinal drink by this point! I cannot commend the AMREF air ambulance staff enough – extremely professional and helpful in our hour of need!

An hour later we touched down in Kenya and were whisked off to the Nairobi Hospital Emergency Department. We were very relieved to find ourselves in a ‘normal-looking’ hospital, not too dissimilar to the UK. In fact it’s the cleanest hospital we’ve ever visited! Minus a 4 hour target, we had expected to spend the night in A+E so it came as a pleasant surprise to find ourselves in a room on the private ward 2.5 hours later. Thankfully Debbie could stay in my room as my ‘lodger’ and the staff took good care of her too!

Following a series of blood tests, we found out that I had been inaccurately diagnosed with malaria as I did not have the malaria antigen in my blood. “Not the first false-positive malaria test” as the Consultant stated. Several different tropical diseases were suspected before I was eventually diagnosed with food poisoning, and thankfully responded well to intravenous antibiotics and fluids. During my 6-day hospital admission, I also learnt the hard way that I have an allergy to the drug buscopan as I had two severe allergic reactions in one day – how to kick you when you’re down!

The best Christmas present ever came on Christmas Eve…I was discharged from hospital – and for all intents and purposes, as was Debbie!!!! And so our mission to get home by Christmas day began! I’m pleased to report that SOS Insurance came up trumps and managed to book us seats on the last flight of the day back to Uganda. Arriving late, we were accommodated in Kampala for the night, and the follwoing morning we were “driving home for Christmas” and relieved to arrive back in Gulu to enjoy the later part of the Christmas day! A race against time but we made it!

We have been extremely grateful to everyone for their support during this rather unpleasant and stressful time. Being unwell so far away from home compounds the difficulty and upset, but all the messages and phone calls have helped to lift our spirits enormously. I personally would like to thank Debbie for being my pillar of strength and my rock. I don’t know how I would have coped without her continuous reassurance, help, and positivity. I would also like to thank Marian Surgenor, our link lead for her ongoing support, phone calls and UK based assistance which helped more than I can say. And a special thank you to Steve Hawes – Wythenshawe Hospital A+E Consultant – for your advice, and support and knowing we had you at the end of the phone when we needed you!

So everyone, here’s to a very merry Christmas and a happy and HEALTHY 2010!