The hospital was build by the Germans and doesn‘t seem to have seen any renovations since then. I enter the main building. Patients are sitting on a low wall, waiting to be seen by doctors. I am shaking hands, meet doctors and nurses and can‘t remember all the names or faces. In the morning‘s meeting, young doctors present their cases and have to answer questions. A discussion is going on about mechanical preparations and antibiotics. Some of the young doctors seem not to know what they are talking about.
I am shown to the neurological ward. At the entrance a man is sitting at a table with patient folders, watching TV. There are eight beds, each covered with coloured cloth, equipped with a pillow with floral patterns. Curtains of which I can‘t tell the original colour, give patients a little privacy. A nurse explains the cases to me. A boy got hit by a vehicle, he doesn‘t open his eyes. A man is totally paralysed, another just starts walking again but can‘t speak. Next to the patients sit their mothers or other relatives. The doctors do their round. We gather around a baby with a double head. It needs to be fed at least every three hours. - ,Can I sit down please?‘ - I feel better when I help some nurses binding bandages to some pieces of cloth to make new curtains.
Second day in the hospital. In the septic surgical ward, patients are waiting for amputation. A woman, barely more than skin and bones, is walking along the corridor, while most of the other patients are sitting on their beds, staring holes in the air. At the theatre, a patient is waiting for his surgery. He is lying in his bed next to the TV in the entrance area of the theatre, half blocking the door, while doctors and nurses are chatting and laughing beside him. He doesn‘t seem to notice. You can see every muscle of his body, only his left hand is covered in bandages. We are waiting for the anaesthetist to give his okay. After a long while, the nurses begin their work. The bandage is cut before the patient even sleeps but then everything goes very slowly again. Some nurses and doctors are just standing in the theatre, chatting about early pregnancy. They had quite a few cases like this in the last weeks. The patient was shooting but then the gun exploded itself. Under the bandages, his hand is merely recognisable and has to be amputated.
