Posted by Dr. Aditya Sharma, MD
Recently, a fifteen year old boy came to our clinic with one of the worst abscesses I had seen. He had fallen out of a tree about two weeks ago and landed on his left upper arm. This fall left nothing but a small abrasion and the boy thought little of it. Two days later, however, the upper arm started to swell and became red. He also developed a fever, prompting his father to take him to a traditional healer. The healer rubbed tree bark on the wound, causing an additional abrasion. Eventually, he could no longer move his arm because of the severe swelling. So, about 10 days after the initial injury, his father brought him to our clinic.
The boy clearly suffered from malnutrition; he looked the size of a ten-year old and his weight was a mere 27 kilograms (60 pounds). His arms were extremely thin, but the region from mid bicep all the way to the pectoris was swollen as big as a cantalope and shiny as a watermelon. There was a small, red abrasion on the arm that had become crusted with dried pus. Given it’s severity, we decided to drain the abscess under conscious sedation using ketamine. One of our nurse midwives administered the ketamine. Dr. Jhapat sliced the crusted abrasion, and approximately 500 milliliters (16 ounces) of pus shot out, under great pressure. His arm immediately shrunk back to normal size. Dr. Jhapat thoroughly cleaned the wound with iodinized dressing. We also prescribed intravenous antibiotics. His father was quite pleased. They came in twice a day for dressing change and repeat antibiotics.
Clearly, we had saved this boy’s arm. This was another clear case demonstrating the power of effective urgent and primary care in developing community rapport. The father, skeptical of allopathic medical care and reluctant to bring his child into the clinic, definitely saw the utility of our services. Next time someone in his family falls sick, he seemed more ready to come the clinic in a timely manner.