Late Night Emergency Procedure Ends Well

It was 7:30 one night on board the ship. The medical teams were back from a long day in the village, tummies were filled with dinner, dishes were cleaned, and popcorn was being made for a competitive games night in the lounge when a dingy pulled up beside the sea door.
We recognized the man driving, a leader from a neighbouring village we had serviced two days prior. It was the same leader we had given a gallon of fuel to return to his village with patients in his dingy.
That fuel was now being used to transport a little girl along the river for over an hour, desperate to see a doctor.
Though the ship closes for service around 5 every night it was clear that this was an emergency.
At only three years old, the girl was severely undernourished and on her inner thigh was a boil so large it almost doubled the girth of her skinny leg. Carried by her father, son of the village leader, she was led into the clinic where Dr Cassie began to inspect her wound.The infection was so deep that even a local anesthetic would not make a difference; however, it was imperative to clean it immediately. With a topical anesthetic and panadol, Dr Cassielanced the wound and drained it as the little girl laid in her daddy’s arms, tears streaming down her face. As heartbreaking as it was to watch the small girl in pain, the alternative may have been much worse. Dr Cassie said that an infection that large in such an unclean place poses a strong risk of loss of life as this little girl’s malnourished body may not have the capacity to fight the infection.With no aid post in her village, simple tools for cleaning and bandaging boils are unavailable. In fact, without treatment, this little girl may have lost her
life without the treatment she received.
After the procedure, her tears were dried and a small lolly helped take her mind off of the pain. In addition to antibiotics to fight the infection, panadol for the ongoing pain and bandages to care for the wound as it healed, the little girl also received a new dress to replace her shorts, which had been soiled with blood.