PNG Part 2 - Unfinished Stories

26th March 2023 - Ben

Over the last few weeks, we have taken many snapshots. We have gone to peoples’ villages and homes and experienced them for a moment in time. You don’t know their yesterday and you can only speculate on their tomorrow but you get to share in their today.

During our time on medical outreaches this was very apparent. Patients come in and tell you their immediate problem whilst you try to rapidly fill in the pieces. You diagnose (or give it your best guess) and try to leave them in a better state than when you arrived. But when you go, you have no idea what the results were.

Our medical team consisted of one other doctor, 2 nurses and a handful of non-medical volunteers. Each day we’d drive or boat to a village and set up shop - invariably there would be a crowd people waiting to be seen. Conducting the clinics in the villages gave us a glimpse of what life was like for our patients and this was reflected in the spectrum of disease presenting. Despite being separated by just a few miles some villages were rife with infectious diseases associated with poverty and overcrowding. The next stop we’d see many injuries associated with trauma or domestic violence. As we got nearer the city the clinics were not unlike GP consultations back home with many presenting for first world problems, second opinions and third line medications.

It was certainly interesting to see advanced pathology and tropical diseases. We saw Yaws (a disfiguring condition that WHO hopes to eliminate which is clearly going in the wrong direction), Buruli ulcers, Tuberculosis and Tinea Imbracata (a genetically associated fungal skin condition presenting with amazing patterns – known locally as “crocodile skin”). People brought all manner of lumps, bumps and growths. There were injuries old and new. After being inundated with patients with back pain (an occupation hazard of living such a physical life out here), Beth decided to lead an impromptu stretching session with the brimming waiting room of 100 patients (see photos)! It brought joy to many, and cut our waiting list in half. However, much of the work was frustrating as the majority of conditions we either didn’t have the treatment for or they were in need of treatment that we knew wasn’t available in the region. We did the best we could with what we had.

One story that stays with me was a teenage girl with a large, slowly growing mass on her foot. She had been suffering from this for years and it clearly needed surgery. As the consultation went on it became apparent that the main problem was not the mass, but the bullying, stigma and isolation that it was causing. When asked if this was the case, both the patient and her mother burst into tears. We were able to pray for her, speak out against the lies and show her she was of inherent value and worthy of love. I think ultimately this is the point of what were doing there.

Another aspect of the outreach was community engagement. This involved some health education, distribution of tooth brushes and generally playing with the children. One morning we decided to do a skit regarding TB treatment compliance – a big problem here. I was the TB bug who was put to sleep with a short course of TB treatment. However, as the course was stopped early, I re-awakened as ‘drug resistant super TB’ on the shoulders of our 6 ft 10 team member, Mark. This caused much hilarity amongst the mamas, and I hope helped to get the message across. The downside to this was that for the rest of the day, every child (and I mean every child) that came for an appointment that day was terrified of me. They wailed and were dragged forward kicking and screaming – which only compounded the fear for all the other children waiting!

Everywhere we went we encountered such warmth and hospitality. People with nothing giving us more than seemed reasonable. I say us… I mean Beth. At the end of a long clinic day, Beth (my scribe at the time), had a long line of women queuing up to give her gifts. However, the generosity we received stretched wider than the people of PNG. One problem we had encountered a lot of was scabies. Infestations of these little mites were widespread and we saw countless children (some as young as 3 weeks old) ravaged by infestation and secondary infections. With no treatment at-hand we felt powerless to help and had to turn away dozens of people without medicine. One day we received an unexpected deposit into our bank account as a kind couple had decided to donate us their tithe for the month. With it, we were able to source and buy scabies treatment which will help dozens of families on the next outreach. It seems generosity begets generosity.

As we draw our time to a close, I would like to know what came of many of the patients we saw, but it is not a privilege I will be entitled to. Did they go for the TB testing? Was your skin diagnosis correct? Did the child get removed from the abusive home situation? There are many unfinished stories. I hope the few lines we were a part of were positive. And I hope (perhaps arrogantly) that for some they may steer their story towards a happier next chapter.