By Dr. Okeme Arome Mama is an illiterate about-70-year-old Muslim Fulani woman, who is a widow and lives in some distant village from the facility. She is a known hypertensive who, until recently, wasn't regular with her meds. She had being depressed for a while now owing to the fact that some months ago, she had narrated to me, her husband and children had been killed by cattle rustlers who stormed their abode to rob them of their properties that included their herd of cattle. She hasn't being the same afterwards. She recently presented to the facility, after a prolonged period of absence and, obviously, irregularity with her meds, with an offensive putrefying smell while being bedridden. She had earlier felt a sting on her leg one afternoon while she gleaned for firewood in her farm and itched off the area assuming it was just another itch. Days to weeks later, her left foot from the outside of the dorsum extending to the ankle had an ulcer that was discharging copiously of odoriferous pus. The effluvium charged the surrounding air so much so that I had to wear a face mask. On examination we noticed that the pus had travel and damaged underlying tissues well up until the mid shin of the left leg. We made out to debride and irrigate the wound, it confirmed the extent of the damage. Working with a diagnosis of an arterial ulcer, we initially thought to refer her but she and her caregivers pleaded against it. They argued that if we insisted, they would rather go home and continue the native way. We explained the gravity of the situation but they would have none of it, so we decided to continue. Well, here we are, I am glad we did. After some weeks in the hospital and more weeks as an outpatient, mama is once again bouncing with the leg and making cases for little children in her community who are sick and wouldn't be brought to the clinic, serving as their advocate. The rural doctor platform seeks to bring to the world's view the striking difference in health care management in resource poor rural settings as oppose to the urban areas. Thank you.
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