Hamna Umeme

"Hamna Umeme" translates to "There's no electricity". "Hamna Umeme" was the theme of today's clinic this morning. From 9am to Noon we had no electricity and I ended up telling almost all patients that unfortunately "hamna umeme" because when there's no electricity the hospital practically shuts down - the lab can not run any specimens and the radiology department can't use the back up generator, so patients can't get imaging. This means patients end up waiting extra long hours, usually the entire day to get treated. And usually the patients come back and tell me that there is no electricity. I tell them that unfortunately "hamna umeme" you just have to wait.....
The last two days were holidays due to Tanzania's independance day. I'm sure most people enjoyed having the last two days off, however, most people who enjoyed the last two days off ended up coming to the hospital sick today. The number of patients waiting in clinic was huge and at the reception desk, there was a continuous mob of people squeezing their way in to get a chart to see a doctor. I saw about twenty or thirty patients by noon and I ended up telling almost all of them that unfortunately we don't have electricity at the moment, so you just have to wait. Luckily the electricity returned around noon just as I was telling one of the last patients to wait.
All of my patients finished getting their labs drawn by about 3 pm and then the patients I had to scan all turned up at ultrasound.
The last patient I saw today was a young girl with five children. She was admitted to the hospital with a pregnancy of about 26 weeks and severe anemia. We scanned her today because of "size greater than dates" (in other words the size of the uterine fundus was greater than the number of weeks of pregnancy). The scan showed viable twins with concordant growth. I waited until after the scan and documentation to tell the woman she had two babies because I wanted to see the expression on her face when I told her the "good news":). I looked straight into her eyes and told her that she can expect two healthy babies :) I waited and waited, but she had absolutely no change in expression on her face! I asked her if she understood me, and she said she understood. But still no change in expression on her face! I was disappointed and confused that she looked emotionless. I just told her to return to the ward. I don't know how this woman will manage to support and raise seven children!