Took a (very) brief tour of the cholera hospital in Dhaka (psudo-related article here: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2048937,00.html). It may be hard to believe that one can get excited about cholera, but excited I was. It is not something we see in the states (thanks to water sanitation, etc.), though it remains common (and deadly, particularly for the young) in much of the developing world. This hospital has served as a model for many programs in other countries and is a center for research on this disease and other diarrheal diseases.
What surprised me, I guess, was the relative organization of the facility, despite the high volume of patients. My source for comparison - the Mount Sinai emergency room, which induces PTSD-like symptoms for me. It is crowded, loud and absolutely unbearable for more than five minutes. Complete and total chaos is the only adequate description. This Dhaka hospital, in stark contrast, had an aura of calm. Granted, the short-stay unit/emergency room area was much more spacious than our own ER, but the volume of patients was apparently higher. AND the majority had profuse, watery diarrhea... despite this, things remained clean, organized.... pleasant even.
(So "beds" occupy every available space, though what is interesting is that these beds are actually modified cots, that are covered in plastic sheeting, which (bear with me) have a hole in the center underneath which resides a bucket. Primitive yes, but brilliant really: things are kept clean, there is a way to measure the amount of volume lost and no one is running to the bathroom, its right there. LOVE... in the time of cholera!!!)
Dhaka solution/rehydration solution:
Also... me (appearing as a brown sack... I guess of rice, considering the amount of I have been consuming) on an abbreviated tour of the city. I think this was Parliament.
Only YOU would make the title of a post "Diarrhea" with an exclamation point nonetheless. You look like a TINY thing (and very young might I add!) and this is coming from a woman who has to consume rice nearly every night for dinner thanks to an asian hubs.
ReplyDeleteI would've SO needed one of those beds during the awful stomach virus I got back in February while in the midst of my second trimester (talk about a good time!) But yeah, that does sound quite brilliant.
Well...it was exciting diarrhea, hence the exclamation point =) Granted if I were the one experiencing it, likely not as exciting (definitely can't imagine how much "fun" it would be pregnant =( )
ReplyDeleteyou look tall in your sack
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