4-19-08; It’s always interesting to see the perspectives of various cultures. The other day we were performing a c/s on a lady. She requested a tubal ligation but before we could perform this we had to call her husband and request his permission… Half-joking I said, “What if a male wants a vasectomy, do you have to get the wife’s permission?”
Everyone looked at me cross-eyed, as if I was speaking a foreign language (and before you say I am speaking a foreign language in Kenya, I’m not, English is the official language, Swahili is the national language, with multiple ethnic languages also being spoken).
Everyone looked at me cross-eyed, as if I was speaking a foreign language (and before you say I am speaking a foreign language in Kenya, I’m not, English is the official language, Swahili is the national language, with multiple ethnic languages also being spoken).
Dr Chege responds, “I’ve only seen three vasectomies in my career and two of them were on white guys.”
The nurse replies, “In Kenya family planning is the women’s responsibility, we don’t want our men running around without any trail as to where they’ve been.”
I remained quiet on this issue as I don’t think I will change any opinions.
Another interesting encounter was when I proceeded to try to discharge a patient on Sunday. You see here we don’t discharge patients on Sundays because the business office is closed. The business office being closed means that families/patients can’t pay the bill of their hospitalization. If you can’t pay the bill you can’t leave. You must remain in the hospital until someone liquidates your bill. Theoretically someone can be discharged on Sunday, but they must pay their bill on Saturday.
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