Yesterday the labour ward was rather busy and towards the
end of the afternoon we were out of delivery packs. An urgent trip to the sterilising room by one
of the students did not produce fresh supplies as the autoclave cycle still had
about 20 minutes to go.
Chloe, one of the elective medical students from the UK, was hoping
to “catch” her first delivery. However,
the mother-to-be was not progressing as well as one might want, and when the foetal
heart rate dropped to undesirable levels – the following conversation ensued…
Me: “we need some
instruments and especially some scissors…”
Midwife: “Sister, we
don’t have – there is no ‘seesar’ at all”
Intern: (rather worried)
“Why are you looking for a Caesar?”
Me: “I don’t need a
Caesar – I need a scissor for doing an episiotomy – and all she may need is
a ventouse, not a Caesar at this point!”
Midwife: “But Sister –
there is no Caesar!”
Me: (suddenly
inspired!) – Please go to theatre and get a scissor from the Caesar pack!”
Midwife: “But Sister –
there is no ‘seesar’!!!”
Somehow – a few minutes later – the caesarean section
instrument pack was produced and a pair of scissors retrieved… just in time – a few
minutes later another little Ugandan girl safely entered the world. Afterwards, on reflection, we finally
understood that my “scissor”, the
Midwife’s “seesar” and the Intern’s “Caesar”
were all different interpretations of the same sound!…
Hanna
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