Day 3

We walked by ourselves to HEI headquarters this morning (yes it is only a 3 minute walk shhhhh, Haleigh lacks many geographical navigation skills so it’s a win). This was after Haleigh ate her breakfast of eggs and toast with only a knife and applied too much bug spray so her business casual shoes were slipping all over the shower where she was applying it. Aayush also decided to do us all a favor and shave before our meetings at the hospital. 

We hopped in the car with Chika and Pascal, who expertly navigated the busy, narrow streets of Surulere. Our first stop was the General Hospital Gbagada to meet the director of the Burns and Trauma Department and discuss collaborating. We were very impressed to learn HEI offers many healthcare services in the area, such as financial support for non-chronic medical conditions and treatments, such as malaria, traumatic accidents, and surgeries. The director was excited to meet us, and had actually just been appointed to this new position, so we were his first meeting as the director!

One of our goals in Nigeria is to assess how our program affects clinical outcomes of healthcare. To accomplish this, we are asking a variety of clinicians in trauma and emergency departments their perspective on different prehospital interventions and special considerations for prehospital curriculum. For example, we ask if they’re aware of LFR programs, if they’ve ever cared for anyone transported by an LFR, and what treatment the patient had received before arriving. Other questions included if they saw a difference in the level of care provided by formal EMS compared to LFRs and if they supported LFRs in the community. 

We also wanted to know how they saw different treatment methods: such as using a towel versus a cervical collar for spinal immobilization, a makeshift versus a standard tourniquet, and traditional bone setting versus splinting. Something Aayush and another fellow, Emily, have found while researching fracture splinting in resource-limited settings, is the prevalence of bone setters, who treat musculoskeletal injuries in the out-of-hospital setting, however their training levels vary. Stay tuned for more details in their research paper on fracture splinting in low- and middle-income countries later this year!

Our first interviewee was a Medical and Casualty Officer that worked in the Burn and Trauma Center, who provided some valuable insight into splinting interventions, the possibility of sepsis when using clothes as makeshift tourniquets, and the importance of awareness in the general public about prehospital care. He also mentioned doing training in secondary schools, which HEI has already done this past May and we’re hoping to expand upon with a needs assessment during our trip!

Aayush did a fantastic job doing the interview (Haleigh also lowkey forced him to do it), and we greatly appreciated the clinician’s feedback. 

Next, we went to meet with the head Medical Doctor in the General Hospital, where they manage non-traumatic emergencies, such as heart attacks, diabetes, and strokes. We were very impressed with the variety of doctors and surgeons they had available - neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, cardiologists, and many more but we lost count! This meeting was also to discuss potential collaboration and we would love to work with his team to implement more advanced medical trainings in the future. 

After the meetings, we briefly stopped by the UPS store, enjoying some soccer on the tv there while waiting. The 15 minutes of the Women’s World Cup is more soccer than Haleigh has watched in a while, but Aayush has already divided the HEI office over his love for Manchester United.

Back at the office, we were quite hungry and went to a nearby restaurant to grab some lunch with Mayowa. Poor Aayush is vegetarian so couldn’t have their standard jollof rice and chicken (but Haleigh had no problem greatly enjoying it right in front of him). He got close to choosing a topping of Nigerian cooked greens, before realizing it had fish in it, so was left with fried plantains and yams, which were also yummy. We both agreed the yams tasted like potatoes. 

Haleigh got lost on the five minute walk back, and has quite literally zero defense for it. We then did some work with the HEI team back at headquarters before wrapping up for the night. Aayush also has become the defacto public defender of Mayowa as he is often ribbed by the ladies of HEI. Everyone wants to have Haleigh’s hair, which she is baffled by because she wants to cut it all off sometimes, and they also told her even though she doesn’t wear earrings she’s still beautiful. So she’s really thriving on the compliments. Aayush was hoping that since he shaved today he would also get compliments … crickets. Stay tuned for some updates to Aayush’s style profile in his quest for compliments.

Showing up at the office in the morning in our business casual clothes and leaving around 5 or 6 pm, we really feel like the business interns we were making fun of earlier today. Also Haleigh got dissed for being too weak to handle mosquito bites, while Aayush was “big and strong” so they shouldn’t bother him, there’s his compliment for the day. Aayush also battled some freezing shower temperatures after returning to the hotel which he would like noted for the record. There’s also some whispers at the rumor mill that Aayush and Haleigh will be ordering some dominos sometime soon, more to come there.

We were very concerned the blog wasn’t going to be funny today and want everyone to know that Aayush offered to trip over a rock on the way home just to get some blog content. Haleigh decided that was a bad idea but then partially made up for it by ordering the chicken pepper soup. Even in the two hours it took to arrive, she had not prepared for the spicyness. In retrospect, the name should have given it away, but she made sure to not order from under the “spicy” category of the menu. Anyways, she was lowkey dying and had to eat a cracker in between every bite. Her sinuses are very clear now though, so maybe that’s a plus, and it was good soup.

Haleigh’s complimentary breakfast. Could she have gone and asked for a fork? Yes. Was she desperate enough for this to be mediocre blog content to just eat it like a sandwich instead? Maybe. 

Half of the pictures today are very poor quality taken out of a car window, so apologies, but yellow taxi buses are everywhere!

The hospital we were at today!

Meeting with the Director of the Burns and Trauma Department, featuring Paschal, Chika, and our business clothes. 

There were many services offered by this hospital! 

Meeting with the main Medical Doctor of the General Hospital 

We saw some ambulances on the way out of the hospital. Lagos does have some formal emergency care services, but they often lack resources, personnel, and ability to quickly reach patients. 

Zach was forgiven after we saw this combination restaurant today

Our delicious meal of jollof rice, chicken, yams and fried plantains