Nuwakot camp: Ortho room

For this camp, I performed door patrol duty mostly for the orthopedics room, which also took in general patients. An 8yr old boy came with a shortened Achilles tendon. It was obvious when he walked that something was wrong. Living in a steep hill area, he is carried to school. A 10 minute subcutaneous surgery, 3 wks in a cast and week of physio could fix it. We’ve asked them to come to Anandaban for surgery. He could then walk to school on his own. Dr. Pradeep checks a man’s leg. Dr. Indra checks a lesion on a girl’s neck to see if it is leprosy. It wasn’t. If it was leprosy, she would not feel his pen touching her there. Skin diseases are a common problem here (fungal sores on someone’s stomach). Also, handing out donated clothes to people (sleeping baby in new shoes). And a baby who was not all enthralled that I was around – so I left his field of vision before he cried. If you notice, his hair is not coal black – a sign of malnutrition. Most kids are also small for their age and so are older than whatever your first guess.