By Reta Raymond
Special Features Editor
I am a third-year student at Syracuse University College of Law, and spent this past summer as an intern at Access to Justice Law Centre, a NGO in Makeni, Sierra Leone. The opinions expressed in this series are purely my own, and not those of Access to Justice Law Centre.
I met an American lecturer at the University of Makeni who came here to teach after graduating law school in the U.S. He mentioned, in an off-hand manner, that he was recently in the hospital with malaria, and advised us to go to a hospital at the first sign of fever, because malaria is easily treated in the early stages. “You’ll be back on the couch the next day,” the lecturer promised. However, this approach seemed overly cautious to me, especially since I am generally a very healthy person and rarely fall ill. Nonetheless, malaria is nothing to mess with, as some strains of the disease can kill a person within days. British colonialists dubbed Sierra Leone “the white man’s grave.”
One afternoon, I was blessed with a small fever. I am a “tough it out” kind of person, so I waited it out to see if it would go down. Hours passed and no break, so I feverishly consulted my guidebook… “fever, chills, joint pain, nausea, stomach pain.” It could be malaria, but it could also be the cassava leaves I ate the day prior… I tried to remember from the last time I had a fever, was 103.8 a high fever? The guidebook did not say when to go to the hospital. Does one go when the fever reaches 104 degrees? 102? 110?
When my fever hit 104 degrees, I decided to go to the hospital. I was ushered into a “special room,” i.e. for foreigners. If you do not get one of these rooms, dear God, insist. I ordinarily hate being treated as a foreigner who is somehow entitled to special treatment, but in this case, I was very happy to be in my room separate from the other patients who are ushered in at all hours of the night and are moaning in pain. Not to mention in the “special rooms” there were mosquito nets and even CNN once the doctor entered his password into the satellite television! It was a better setup than I had at the guesthouse where I was staying.
After I was led to my room, a nurse took my blood pressure and pulse, followed by an injection in my hip. My colleagues and I are not certain what is in this shot, but it is probably not FDA-approved and definitely contains magic. After I got this shot from my nurse, Fatmata, I felt like I had risen from the dead. My colleague, who also got a shot in the rear after coming to the doctor with malaria, had a similar experience. Pure magic.
I got into the hospital around 9 p.m., but they decided to keep me for observation until the morning. This was a ridiculous, I did not need to be kept in observation overnight, and their idea of observing me was checking in at around 3 a.m.,“Reta, are you fine?” “Uh, leading question, but yes, I’m fine.” I was fine from the magic injection, but a few hours later my fever returned and then the stomach issues arose, right as the hospital ran out of toilet paper.
The next morning I exchanged my CNN access for toilet paper with my colleague/roommate. By noon there was no sign of a doctor, even though I was assured that he was making his rounds. Another tip, just as you insisted on the “special room,” insist even more to see a doctor and tell him to order a blood test. Save yourself from the hours and hours of waiting for the doctor doing his rounds. ALL YOU NEED IS THE BLOOD TEST. This sucker will tell you if you have malaria, or typhoid, or just food poisoning. Typhoid? But I got the vaccination! HA, that dinky vaccination is no match for the real deal in this country. Regardless, if you contract this super typhoid strain, like I did, you are also sent home with a bag of pills, just minutes after the blood test. I wasted a great deal of time by waiting for people to bring me doctors and tests, but on the bright side, the entire ordeal was about thirty dollars (night in the hospital, doctor visit, lab and drugs). Just imagine what the bill would be in the United States without health insurance.
To summarize: If you have a fever go to hospital and insist on the special room, insist on seeing a doctor as soon as possible, and then insist on the doctor ordering a blood test for malaria or typhoid immediately. In Africa your patience is tested on a daily basis; save yourself some time.
