I am sorry to say that Mr. A (featured on Oct. 2 blog) passed away a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately he was at home in his village when he started bleeding heavily, lost consciousness, and then died. I was very sad to hear this as we had spent so much time with him. He was a very determined and strong man, whom I had grown fond of. Despite his determination, he could not overcome his condition.
My current challenging patient is Daniel, a 21 year old. Daniel had an ear condition called cholesteatoma for several years. My predecessor, Dr. Anthis, had even seen him and offered surgery. Unfortunately, Daniel could not come up with the $300 for the surgery and hospital stay. He returned to our clinic two weeks ago with a very severe infection of his ear on the inside as well as an abscess forming behind his ear. He was very sick and would have died without intervention. We tried managing with strong intravenous antibiotics and draining the abscess behind the ear. Unfortunately his infection was too deep and required more extensive surgery. I returned home from our Miango getaway on Friday and had to operate on Saturday. I found bone that had been eaten away and the infection had spread to his brain. He had a large brain abscess. I drained the abscess and hoped the antibiotics would do the rest and that I would have a good report by this time. Though he has been better, he has still been very ill and I have taken him back to the operating room two times, including today, to drain pus that had reaccumulated in his brain.
My current challenging patient is Daniel, a 21 year old. Daniel had an ear condition called cholesteatoma for several years. My predecessor, Dr. Anthis, had even seen him and offered surgery. Unfortunately, Daniel could not come up with the $300 for the surgery and hospital stay. He returned to our clinic two weeks ago with a very severe infection of his ear on the inside as well as an abscess forming behind his ear. He was very sick and would have died without intervention. We tried managing with strong intravenous antibiotics and draining the abscess behind the ear. Unfortunately his infection was too deep and required more extensive surgery. I returned home from our Miango getaway on Friday and had to operate on Saturday. I found bone that had been eaten away and the infection had spread to his brain. He had a large brain abscess. I drained the abscess and hoped the antibiotics would do the rest and that I would have a good report by this time. Though he has been better, he has still been very ill and I have taken him back to the operating room two times, including today, to drain pus that had reaccumulated in his brain.
Daniel has benefited from generous donors who gave to the ENT Poor Fund at Evangel Hospital. His family would never be able to pay the large bill (it may be as much as $600) from this admission. We pray that Daniel will get better soon.
Michael Mitchell, MD
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