30 May 2020
So familiar. So unwelcome. Not again!
Maybe this time we can fix this. Maybe this time will be different.
We sat relaxing in the potluck pavilion, 1.5-year old Adelaide bringing mangoes to each of us at the table, then enthusiastically r...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
8 April 2020
I stared at the laptop screen, running through a chest x-ray mnemonic in my mind, trying to decide if there was anything worthwhile that I could find on this film, and trying to guess why it had been ordered. I'm supposed to give a lectur...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
26 March 2020
Upside down. Also, stunned, knocked down, bowled over. This just seems like a great word for this month. The world has been stunned, turned upside down, bowled over. Even the babies are coming out upside down lately.
One of our student ...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
12 February 2020
What's the ICD-10 code for fall from mango tree? I guess it would have to be W14.XXXA. Fall from tree, initial encounter. But the lack of a specific code to blame the fall on a mango tree only reflects the lack of mango trees in the U...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
5 February 2020
For the past several days our hospital compound has oscillated between light and dark, between the gentle distant hum of a diesel motor and silence, between running water and dry faucets. After months of relying on two large generators...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
17 January 2020
"Baby shark, doo doo do do do doo..."
One of the many songs that comes in handy when stuck in the car too long and the 1.5-2-year old is getting restless (at least, this worked great with my niece last time I was in the US). Also one o...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
10 December 2019
The mother lounged on the thin, vinyl-covered mattress covering the wooden platform--a bed in the pediatrics ward. Her 4-year old lying beside her appeared fatigued and ambivalent. The nursing student presented the case, reading the c...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
8 September 2019
The surgery nurse, Emmanuel, and I walked into the pediatric surgery ward. Ok, that gives you the wrong picture. Emmanuel and I pulled the curtain back from a doorway and ducked into a small room--a room not really built to be a patie...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
7 September 2019
So this is slow season--the time of year when patients can't make it to the hospital because the roads are full of ponds or covered by rivers. They don't have time for traveling to the hospital anyway because they're busy working the ...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 9th, 2020
17 August 2019
What would make your life in Chad more luxurious?
The question floated across the air-conditioned, well-decorated, carpeted living room to where I sat catching up with old friends, supported by soft couch cushions, drinking ice water a...
Staci Davenport
Posted on September 8th, 2020
