Last week a patient came into the clinic with a pretty serious ax wound on his left calf. He got the wound while fixing a canoe. he was cutting the wood and the ax slipped and caught his leg. The cut was about four inches across and pretty deep so it was obvious that it needed to be sutured. Our clinic staff put fifteen staples in his leg, only with Lidocaine to numb the pain. After they were done they told him to rest for a week and then come back. A week later he came back to get the staples removed. This time there was nothing to numb the pain, just a very painful process of removing fifteen staples. After they removed them, they dressed it up and sent him on his way. And he is to come back often to change the dressings. We were all glad that the guy lived in one of the closer villages, because it was a very serious wound. Without the suturing, the wound would not have healed properly.
Kasey (the intern)
Po River Medical Clinic 