Blog
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Staff at the Clinic Make a Difference
June 27, 2010
When the rains hit in South Sudan this time of year, a lot of things get slowed down and halted. Because of the poor condition of the roads when it rains, the chance of getting a vehicle stuck and even lost is very high, since the roads are all dirt.
But for the staff of the Duk Lost Boys Clinic, those risks are worth taking.
It happened one night when a mother in labor came to the Clinic. She had been in labor for three days but was unable to deliver, and had to be brought to a surgical theater for a C-section (one of the few capacities the Clinic isn’t able to handle at the moment). A driver and a nurse drove the woman from the Clinic to the surgical site, getting stuck in the mud several times along the way until finally getting stuck 15 minutes from the site, unable to move, and with no other vehicles around to assist.
The husband ran to a nearby village for help, and brought back a group of volunteers with a homemade stretcher, who went on to carry the woman by hand the rest of the way. Once arriving at the surgical theater, the woman delivered a healthy baby boy. Meanwhile, the driver and nurse stayed with the vehicle throughout the night, with no food or water. The nurse eventually walked back to the Clinic after not having eaten for several days. Once the rain let up, one of the few other vehicles in the area came to assist and pull the JDF vehicle out. It wasn’t long after when the Nurse, Abraham, was back to work. “It’s all about the patients,” says Abraham, a native of Duk who was trained while a refugee in Kakuma Refugee camp in Kenya, where he also met John Dau. “They could pay me $1 and it doesn’t matter.” His fellow, Nurse, “Tall Paul”, shares the same attitude. “I love my job. I love my job,” he often says, smiling. They are what make the work going on at the Duk Lost Boys Clinic so special.
