5 Dec 2022
"Salam aleikum. Comment ça va?"
"Oh, she doesn’t understand. She doesn’t speak any Arabic either," the nursing student explained.
"Jam!" I attempted.
Her face brightened and she returned the greeting. She and the student were able to exc...
Staci Davenport
Posted on December 28th, 2022
2 Dec 2022
"Oh, we’re all broken, in some way. Broken and haunted. . . There is more though. It’s not all sad. . . There is magic too." -Rana Awdish, In Shock
The apparently-magical side of medicine welcomed me back to clinical work in the hospital t...
Staci Davenport
Posted on December 3rd, 2022
2 Feb 2021
The woman writhed on the delivery room table, surrounded by female family members who fervently discussed among themselves, sometimes gesturing toward her, but not addressing her. She had been referred from the health center for prolonged l...
Staci Davenport
Posted on June 21st, 2021
24 Jan 2021
The story included all of the typical elements, but I still had to test it for myself. Bitten by a dog a few weeks ago, but the dog was immediately killed. The wound had healed. For a couple of days now, the patient had been showing signs ...
Staci Davenport
Posted on June 11th, 2021
20 Dec 2020
"We have a trauma patient in the ER," the nurse came to inform us while I was seeing consults just outside the operating room and Andrew was operating. "Okay, bring him here." The patient was carried in, bleeding through a bandage on the b...
Staci Davenport
Posted on June 8th, 2021
14 Dec 2020
Everyone should wear goggles and ear protection while harvesting rice.
A 20-something-year-old man sat on the bench in urgence (ER). The urgence nurse gestured toward him, "He got rice in his eye while he was working in the field. It's st...
Staci Davenport
Posted on June 8th, 2021
31 Aug 2020
Often in medicine we have to work for the good of our patients rather than for appreciation from our patients. If we're treating invisible diseases like diabetes or hypertension, or even potentially life-threatening conditions like pre-ecl...
Staci Davenport
Posted on June 7th, 2021
14 Aug 2020
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find...
Staci Davenport
Posted on June 6th, 2021
11 Aug 2020
8:30 pm. Another phone call?? That's the sixth call this evening. What happened to rainy season?!
Nurse: "The baby has a hemoglobin of 2. The mother came alone."
Grumpy doctor: Great. I wonder if there's any blood in the blood bank fridg...
Staci Davenport
Posted on June 6th, 2021
1 Aug 2020
Stranded, separated indefinitely, waiting and hoping for a long-anticipated reunion.
Is the airport open today? The announcement weeks ago said that August 1 would be the day. We don't have internet now, and none of us have tried to leave ...
Staci Davenport
Posted on June 6th, 2021
