Trouble with Transportation

Transportation is such a PAIN IN THE BUTT!

The other day it was such a hassle getting someone referred/transported to another medical center...

The person came in with diabetic ketoacidosis coma, and so we put him on a drip, and i only had 2 blood sugar tests (b/c the dr. didn't give me his test strips before he left).  If it were type 2 diabetes, he'll be ok with some normal saline drip and oral medicine, but then he went into coma again.   He would need insulin if he's type 1 diabetes, and we don't have that.  To add more anxiety, he started getting rigors and high fever, but we don't have blood tests for that. Also the fever messed with his blood sugar, which I couldn't test. Sighs. So I decided he needed to be transferred on Sunday night...

And then it took ALL day on Monday to get him transported to Kenema - 1hr drive.

Since the morning I had said he needed transport, but his relatives took forever to come to help him get transport

and it was his luck that the hospital's only ambulance got totaled last week.  When his relatives finally came, it took FOREVER to get someone with a vehicle who'd be willing to take them.  Then I found out they were waiting for the driver to get some other passengers who want to go to Kenema to decrease the cost. Seriously, this guy is in a coma and rigors and fever of 41C and you want to wait for other passengers??? 

The driver's phone also failed to work, so that significantly slowed down the process b/c the brother had to keep on going down to town to negotiate and find out what's the delay.  Then there was no fuel in Segbwema. In ALL of this town, there was no fuel. Seriously?  So the brother had to go to the next town 7 miles away to get fuel. ...and then the driver said he had to fix the car's tire. Dude, you had the whole day, and you finally decide to do it now? This is what happens in Sierra Leone. There's always something else, some other problem.

They finally got to Kenema at around 9p? 10p?  At least it's a happy ending and the man got treated in time.