After Thanksgiving

Yes we are safe here. The terrorist attack in Chad was a long way from us as it was north of NDJ on Lake Chad area. It may be more dangerous in the USA with the mass shootings and the Ebola. We have had no Ebola in Chad and we have lots of military check points to check for terrorists or whatever you reason is for going anywhere. We see drunks that have wrecks on their "motos" or pedestrians that get hit as they walk on the road after dark. It seems there are always pedestrians, ox carts, stalled vehicles, cows, goats, etc none of which have lights after dark It is dangerous to drive after dark. 

Even though Thanksgiving is not an observed holiday in Chad, we had a nice day with plenty to eat and no scheduled surgery but had a c-section about meal time.. We had invited some local people and some from another mission so we had about 27 together. Three days ago we had a c-section for a ruptured uterus with lots of blood loss. She almost died but is doing ok now. Last night we had motorcycle and car and pedestrian accidents. Six were brought in. One had a fracture knee femur which we put in traction. Some had lacerations and head injuries. One was brought in this morning with part of his foot cut off by a car. It had a lot of debris which we spent a lot of time trying to debride and trying to save part of his foot. The bones were even part cut off but we managed to salvage the heel so hopefully he will have a heel to walk on BUT a huge danger for infection and may have to amputate more later. A knife stab wound which barely missed his liver and did not perforate any intestine (we opened the abdomen to look) was last week and did well. 

We have lots of patients on the Medicine service now with lots of different problems besides the usual malaria, typhoid, parasites, and HIV. We have had some with bad hearts  ie mitral valve disease, several with hepatitis and ascites, and various tumors.  We are having to put some on the veranda as not enough space inside. 

We are hopeful that some volunteers will come soon and help finish some of the buildings that had the shells put up 3 years ago esp for maternity and private wards which would give us more bed space.  Hopefully we can get the new OR done also.

Our emails are:  drbland@sbcglobal.net  and dfbland01@gmail.com.
Rollin and Dolores Bland
Hopital Adventiste de Bere
Boite Postal 52
Kelo, Tandjile,  Chad,  Afrique