Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Two Canoes

"He who paddles two canoes, sinks" is apparently a Zambian saying warning of the dangers of polygamy - it can be found all through the HIV magazines. Perhaps it should also be used at the marriage celebrant's office.

The male medical ward had an interesting admission last week - a 30-something man who'd come in with excruciating abdominal pain, pin-point pupils and bradycardia. He'd taken rat poison, which in Zambia contains organophosphates (not warfarin like at home). Memories may or may not have come flooding back from our very first PBL case. He was given atropine to good effect and has been discharged home.

Why would an apparently healthy young man take rat poison, you might wonder? Apparently his two wives had been fighting, and he'd gotten upset and had taken the rat poison. Too many canoes.

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