Hospitals in Libya

Back to Hospitals, for there last eight months I “lived” in TMC Bouslim and Central hospitals,

I’m going to start with the worst one… Obviously Bouslim, it was summer 45 degree and no air conditioner in the hole hospital except the resuscitation they had one but you can’t even feel it, I’m not even going to start talking about hospital standers! I was in chock in the operation theater; surgeons sweat dripping in people’s abdomen and into their brains, They should start scrubbing faces!! , then out of sudden they closed the X-ray department in TRUMA hospital b/c (I’m not sure) they found radiation hazards! Dirt everywhere lack of gauzes medication and almost everything, Whenever we sent an investigation: NO REAGENT.

Ok only one thing was good is the stuff they really work in the hardest situation that any Doctors nurse or technicians can ever face.

Then TMC ….. standers guaranteed everything is shinny and clean, even the laboratory was very clean …they have nothing, one day no liver function test the other  no urea no viral screen,the hardest shift I had it was when they run out of Intra vein fluids….

One extra bad thing the filter, many many times we found cases in observation complaining from tonsillitis or so , consuming time effort and a bed of a cases as serious as peritonitis!!

Before I forget special thanks to Dr. S.R great Job Dr.

Finally the Central , the Oldest but the best so far, I did work with unit D, many of my friends had big question mark when I told them so, why b/c it’s known to be the hardest most strict unit in surgery department , good hygiene , punctuality(A very rare thing to find here ) and outstanding team work , Down side; Ct and x-ray on and off and off, it’s just so confusing when you work in TRUMA and there is no X-ray nor ct and you have to send people to another hospitals, take a decision of transfer not an easy thing to do.

What made me really angry there is no needles container, they through it in black plastic bag handled directly by the cleaning staff, and there are very dirty curtains all over the place with blood stains in trauma department!

Good and bad shifts the thing I got from working in the three hospitals is the people working there over worked less paid or not at all, but still they do their best.

I do care!

One day I was in the operation theater and I noticed the sets of instruments were labeled with horrible misspelling.  No judgment, I have the same problem.

I took a marker and corrected it. After three days I went back to see that they put the same thing back.

I don’t know what you call that… So I did fix it one more time, hopefully this time it will stay!

Libyana or Al madar!

Every time there is something new, it’s a policy communication services used to from day one,not to make you interesting but to make you buy more and more for example the first mobile SIM card was 3000 LD (Almadar), sure I wasn’t crazy to buy a sim card with that amount of money but I did buy  300, now you can find it from 5 to10 LD.

Internet on mobile is so useful, Libyan charge for the Kb but Almadar you bay a monthly 10 dinars but wait they send a text saying that was just a trial now you get 45 hours for your 10, and they made the speed way lower …460Kb/s, Don’t get frustrated we have wireless internet WI FI half dinars/hour very slow and they don’t have warranty, if something happen to your device you have to buy a new one with 70LD and you buy monthly 10LD for the phone services. But all that is over if you can pay 500 for a Wi Max one year fees.

Ok don’t give up they have dial up .

Earlier this year, I woke up to find my mobile out of service!! why b/c I’m foreign and I own two numbers and they dare txting it, no sham from being racisms, Libyans can have up to 5 numbers but foreigners can have only ONE .

they made me lose 3 days waiting in huge line next to Olympia medina, many people change their numbers to Madar, but both belong to the same company same mangment, why bother.

for the ones who don’t live here to have a mobile phone number you have to bring 2 pictures and a passport copy, to have a land line it’s way too complicated.

What is next, you will never know!!

Regular day inTripoli.

My friend is going to ” Omra” this Ramada so we decided to have lunch out, after a strong recommendation to al Zawada restaurant in Benashor we went there having only one hour before the surgery class, the place was nice but one look to the menu made us wonder if it is the good choice but because we had no time we decided to go for it. The menu was pasta pizza and risotto so we decided to just take a mushroom soup and salad; my friend had her lap top with her  ,when the waitress came to take the order he asked that’s it?!  I said yes he answered well you have to have a main course and if you coming to use the wireless connection you can go to the coffee shop down stairs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can not imagine how shocked I was, my friend she didn’t even understand what he was talking about and kept asking “what did he say?”

I said to him I’m not here to use internet!! I came to have lunch but I think it’s not worth it , he went and start to press on the screen the order but I just  couldn’t stay so we left but he stopped us saying I  typed your order ,I  went even more angry I  said to him ok I  will pay it but don’t push me to call your manger and make a scene in a full restaurant which  he really deserve, he heard” the manger”  and start to apology !!

However after that we went to Pizza family my favorite pizza place and we did enjoyed the lunch after all.

But that’s not all, after that we went to attend the lecture but out of sudden a big Toyota car bunged to the right side of ours ,  the guy was driving backward going out from side park and he said simply: I  didn’t see the small red car .

 First he tried to intimidate my friend saying when we go to the police she will see it’s her fault and he will not pay to fix her car (nothing happen to his car!).

what surprise me that my cute smiley friend react very different from what I expect she was tough and strong telling him that she will go no matter what he is saying.

 Going to the police they said he is wrong and he should fix it for her, and he got so mad and want her to say ‘ alla yasamh’ and just let him go or share the bile with him giving an excuses that he is he didn’t mean it it’s fait but she instead to not pay and he should fix it it about 100 L.D and he looks like a will paid person,

His behavior was up and down he said either she pay with him or he will clam he doesn’t have money she will go to the court then she will take years to solve it!!

At the end he paid only 70 L.D

 But she showed me that you should never underestimate a cute girl

I’m really impressed with the way she handled the situation, bravo R

 

Emergency Exits at TMC

Today was the opening day for Hepatitis C support group at Tripoli medical center ,I singed up and I’m looking forward to working with them.

In my way out I found the emergency exit locked with chains , so I got curious to go and look around , I found all other exits were locked , the hospital is three towers so in case of any emergency a disaster will happen , there is only two main exits and one small for the gynecology department .

I have a lot of questions about TMC security procedure, specially about the central air condition , the best way to transfer infections !!

Next time I will check if there is a smoke detectors and I will investigate more

Another thing  that bothers me at the Tripoli medical center are the security guards ,from the fist time they saw my college ID card they keep stopping me every morning and making me lose 5 min checking for I don’t know what; possibly because of my nationality, now it’s getting ridiculous (6 months ) .

Too Old to be examined !

Dermatology is the most boring department…. this week was dull
nothing exciting ,

well except for one suicidal patient having a depression because of

his acne (a sever type ) but yet it is not a reasonable reason to give upon life,

don’t believe there is one .

My car is broken so I’m using public transportation; what a place to

watch clips from people’s life . Toady’s trip was with a crazy driver

of a minibus , he was driving So fast, an old man got panic and

shout ‘ slow down” ,he answered i have an insurance ur family will
be rich if u die, ur so old to be scared !!

that remind me of one of my shifts in internal medicine a 90 years old

patient was waiting outside while we handle the most serious cases,
they kept her for long so her son was very angry ,the Dr got them
inside and he just put his stethoscope on her chest checked the pulse
went back to his desk and prescribed some multivitamins !!

he turned to us justifying : “don’t examine or take history from very

old patients they have multi systemic diseases and u will be stuck with

them, they will die soon anyways” .

I wish I will be lucky to live long and grow old and I want to have a

good medical serves even If they dig my grave .

PS: Thank u prince .

Every morning .

This is what I see every morning through the window for the last 15 years ” Libya” ,I spent most of my life here but I couldn’t get used to it, I still feel like a tourist stuck in a weird trip !!

It’s not for ever I’m graduating from medicine collage this year and I’m moving , not to my original country but to some where in this world , I’m keeping my choices Open .

I have a very busy schedule at hospital and every day facing new challenges .

the best thing here is the beach the weather is getting hot and i can’t wait to enjoy the waves .