Kimmy's comments-they pull you down then they pick you up

Yesterday was a funny day what with the DG stuff and a ward full of sick people. I had a 14 year old girl who suddnely looked terirble with breathing troubles yesterday. I put her on oxygen and strong antibiotics through the vein, but after lunch I took a look at her and she looked worse despite my attempts. me and some seniors spent an hour or so trying to get her breathing better with various potions, but she didn't improve. At 5pm I decided we should refer her to Mthatha Hospital , after all she wasnt my usual patient - she was HIV -ve, previously well, and only 14 years old. Unfortunately it was too late to get the helicopter to come as apparently it doesn't fly at night, so i had to settle for the Metro Ambulance along the bumpy wet dirt road to Zithulele (at least an hour away). Unfortunately before the ambulance arrived she stopped breathing and her heart stopped beating. We tried to rescuscitate her for about 45 minutes with adrenaline, atropine, the lot - tried everything we could think of but unfortunately had to give up eventually as she wasn't coming back to us. She died. I think it was a super nasty pneumonia. It was bleak. Only 14. So today at work bumbling around my busy ward and I was feeling pretty broken and sad about it all. Things just carry on you know and sometimes that's hard.

Just as I was feeling utterly bummed I got a call from Liz one of the other doctors and my good friend. "guess who's back" she said excitedly "who?" I asked.....it turns out that my favourite Paeds baby a 2 1/2 year old girl called Aphiwe who I'd sent very sick to a great hospital 3 hours away in East London had survived and was back with us! There was a lovely letter to me from the consultant saying 'thankyou for your excellent referral' and that our diagnosis of TB everywhere (chest, abdomen, liver...)was correct. She was changed to pills instead of antibiotics through the vein, which means she can go home soon!

I ran down to Paeds ward to catch a glimpse of her and she looked wonderful - fat faced and much healthier (she was wee scrap with a buddah belly before, adorable). She was wearing this cute flowery dress. This girl was the one that captured my heart for some reason on Paeds, I think I wrote about her granny being awesome a while back when I said she might be on the ward for 6 months. I am delighted she is better. Sometimes there are happy endings too!

Also yesterday Taryn one of the other doctors called me to see her kiddy for a peek, and it was a boy who'd burnt his leg a few months back and had been on my ward getting his burn cleaned up for a few weeks and then was sent to Mthatha Hospital for skin graft (no, not the one I wrote about a while back, he has disappeared, but another one). His leg looked great, graft had taken well, a wonderful result and another happy story.

So, it is funny that things pull you down but then something else lifts you back up. I think some people think these kind of things are the work of god or something. I'm in the 'of something' category, I'm just happy they happen when you most need your faith in yourself and what you are doing restoring.