April 30th 2016

Sister Doe arrived at the Hospital at 4:00 a.m. When she entered the Ward, there were rats running around under the men's beds. She noticed her husband's IV bag was dry. She walked into the hallway and could not find anyone. She hollered "Nurse" - there was no answer. After the 5th time of calling "nurse", each time louder than the last, an aide came out of another room where she and the other aide were sleeping on beds. Sister Doe indicated her husband's IV bag was dry. The aide changed it. Don arrived at the hospital about 9:00 a.m. Don, sister Doe, and Brother Doe's friend went to the Standard Charter Hospital and found it to be a good hospital with medications, equipment, and bedding and a/c for the patients. The hospital was clean and the nurses trained. They went back to the awful hospital and the doctor had not arrived. To get Brother Doe out of the hospital the Dr. Had to sign a release form. They waited. Don noticed Brother Doe's IV bag was dry. He called a nurse and told her. With a horrified expression on her face she quickly changed the bag. Don noticed two hours later that Brother Doe's IV Bag was still full and it was not dripping. He called the nurse (they had a change of shift so the original nurse was gone) and said "it is not dripping". She said "Oh" and went over and turned a knob, smiled and said "it's OK now". The first nurse forgot to turn it on. Don called and text the Dr. multiple times throughout the day and got no response. He later found out that the doctor attended the wedding of one of the technicians and by 3:00 was still not there. Nothing had been done with Brother Doe. Don went and arranged for an ambulance from the Standard Charter Hospital. When it arrived, Don told the nurse he was taking Brother Doe to another hospital. Of course, she had something to say about that. Don got in her face and said, "I am taking my friend out of this place." The nurse pulled out a release form from a drawer with no handle and said "sign this you are taking him out". Don wrote very large across the page, "I D.L. Carley am taking Sahr Doe out of this place" and then signed it. The nurse signed it. Then she told Don to date it. He did. She told him to sign he dated it. He did. Then she did the same. Now they had to get brother Doe out of bed and onto a stretcher to take him down those awful stairs of 3 flights. There were many people ready to help move him. They were all talking at the same time and each had their own opinion on how to move him. They did not have a backboard. The general consensus was to have everyone put their hands under brother Doe and lift him. But they couldn't agree on that either. The noise was too much. Don yelled "Shut UP!" No one responded. He yelled it again louder. Still no one responded. He yelled it a third time and emphasized it. Everyone came to a screeching halt. The room was silent. Don, being angry, asked "who is in charge here?" No answer. He asked a second time "who is in charge here" with more sternness. One person pointed to a nurse and said "she is". The nurse took a step back and said "NO". Then Don said, "OK then, I am in charge. He pointed to himself and pounding on his chest with his short stubby finger repeated, I AM IN CHARGE!" Then he received inspiration on how to move Brother Doe. He told all the people they were going to use the sheet brother Doe was laying on, they were all going to pull it tight and they were going to move very slowly from bed to stretcher. They did and it worked. Brother Doe was rescued from "hell". They got him to the other hospital and was treated right away, received an X-ray & scan and found that he has a C6 vertebrae that is broken. The bone is broken but the things that fill the spinal column was still in tack. He needs surgery ASAP. The Doctor told Sister Doe that because of the length of time since the accident, he did not feel very hopeful that Brother Doe would be any better than he is now. She was crushed and became withdrawn. The Doctor said he could not do the surgery here, Brother Doe would need to be flown to Ghana to a specialist. Sister Doe and Mr. Davis, Mrs. Doe's driver and another man I did not recognized came home. She was so tired and unresponsive. She went to bed. Her good friend came over and stayed with her until she fell asleep. Don and the Doctor worked tirelessly arranging for a flight and a medical person to escort Brother Doe to Ghana. Only one person could go on the flight with him, and that was going to be the medical person. Sister Doe would not be able to go. The pilot notified Don that they needed an e-mail from the Doctor itemizing what medical equipment and medications they needed to have on the plane. Don went to the Doctor and told him. The Doctor said, "I can't do that until morning. I left my cell phone at my office and I don't have a computer here or Internet". WHAT? Don was livid. He went back to Mrs. Doe and the other friends of Sahr and told them. Two of the men went to see the Doctor and took their cell phones and put him on the spot. Don did not tell me what happened, only the doctor was able to make the e-mail. Then Don was notified that because they would be flying over Ivory Coast and Liberia, they had to have permission from the embassies in those country to allow them to fly over them. The embassies were not open. Tomorrow is Sunday. Will the embassy be open then? We will have to wait and see. Don got home about 10:00 p.m. He was keyed up and very tired.