Alpine Pristine Homes

24/01/2024

Part two

I am in the ward asking to see a trauma patient? Yes Dactari we have a trauma patient that kind that happens when humans disagree , a very distressed young woman. Sounds right , yes that is her needing total pain management, physical, spiritual and psychosocial pain.
I walked into the room and noticed a heavily bandage woman deeply asleep . I watched her for a minute wondering if to wake her up. Good morning came out , that felt uncomfortable, a terrible start what would be good about it! Hallo, hallo and with that she opened her eyes. Slowly at first until she recognized me and suddenly opened them wide and let out a shout. Why did you not tell me? I hate all Doctors and Nurses, you people should learn to tell the truth. With that she started crying. As she continued in her silent crying I saw it dawned on her ,yes she remembered. We had told her , yes it was a fact we emphasized , specifically that the HIV virus is transmitted from body fluids of an infected person. We had hoped she would ask questions and we would paint a few pictures of what might have happened but her husband had a story and she went with it. I was happy for them that a happy forever seemed possible.
I sat down to be on the same level with her and asked. Please tell me what happened from when you left hospital? I was curious very curious!
She became animated and exclaimed. Just imagine he told me coming to Africa gave him HIV and I believed him! He said the mosquitoes did it like they give you malaria. He also thought it could be sharing of utensils and facilities at the place he worked. Luckily by the time he was to go back to work the Covid pandemic started and he was able to work from home. No more sharing at work. We settled into a good routine and started making plans of moving back to India or one of the western countries. I started making plans and remaking them and I was happy, really happy.
After I found out I was negative it was tempting to escape and forget I was ever married but I remembered it was “for better or worse “. Recently I saw a gynecologist who was going to help me get a baby and yes my hope for a bright future was back, until three days ago. She stopped talking and continued crying and shaking her head , moaning no no this is not happening.
A few minutes later she continued ….like I said he worked from home and insisted on doing it in the privacy of the office in the house, even I was not allowed free access to that room. However last Wednesday my house manager asked to take an hour off, I stepped in to help. At 10 o’clock I knocked at the door and walked into his office to serve him the fresh fruit juice I had prepared. Unfortunately or luckily for me he had stepped into the bathroom. I noticed a blinking message on his computer, it was begging to be open , you know the kind that dances on the screen. I opened it and ……..again the crying. I saw a video of him with some girls, different clips, different girls and he was with each girl. I won’t tell you what they were doing but it was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. I was so angry it paralyzed me for a moment.
As he came out of the bathroom I hit him with a chair and the fight began.I was so angry that he was collapsed and bleeding by the time I stopped. The last video was with our current house manager, that thought still hurts, I trusted her . So Dacktari how is he doing? Actually I don’t want to know.
He is okay for now he will soon be out of the intensive care unit, maybe do a few days in the high dependency unit. You did some real damage he is now on dialysis, the blood loss damaged his kidneys but he will live. I wonder if he will consider legal action against you.
A few weeks later they were both discharged and each left separately. It would be interesting to know what happened, for now we just wish them well.

17/01/2024

That is your story and she is buying it?
They were an Asian couple, a power couple that definitely had everything going for them. Each had a presence that spoke of personal accomplishment in many ways.
Unfortunately the young man was involved in a motorcycle accident while out riding, it was a hobby. This resulted in admission to hospital and tests to see if anything was broken. Something was seen, yes the brain scan was not clear, the abnormal area was small but could not be ignored. Maybe and just maybe it was just blood from the accident. A neurosurgeon was asked to see the patient and suggest a small operation to remove a small piece to tell us what it was. So a biopsy was done and that went well. The patient was discharged to come back for the results of the biopsy. Luckily it was not cancer but an infection , the kind one gets if one has low immunity. What would have caused immunosuppression in an otherwise healthy fun loving human being. Maybe a leukemia interfering with blood cells, maybe …..many thoughts were entertained. More and more tests needed to be done and finally a diagnosis was arrived at.
It was a surprising diagnosis that was rechecked and rechecked, until it was time to break the news. The patient had HIV.
The patient was readmitted to hospital because the small wound was not healing and he needed stronger antibiotics. At this point it was important to have an honest discussion with the patient. Sitting through the conversation to break the news of the diagnosis I was totally surprised, he took it in well, no he took it in too well.
He asked that we give him time to internalize the news and tell his wife before discussing the way forward. She visited later in the day and everyone left the room to allow them talk and half an hour later we had wailing coming out of the room. Running back in we found his wife collapsed on the bed crying her heart out. Her makeup was all messed. She looked defeated, she looked deflated, she looked shell shocked, she was a mess! We agreed to retreat and let them be.
In the next few days the couple was started on ARV’s , educated on all necessary fronts and discharged in a stable state. Many changes followed to allow recovery, the motor bike for one was put aside and the annual holiday was cancelled and although sadly a refund was not available reassurance was made that full recovery would make the holiday possible the next year.
I totally forgot about the couple until I got an urgent call to see a lady admitted as an emergency in the trauma ward and yes one member of the power couple was in the ward, the other one…..it did not go well!

11/11/2023