Work: some ups and downs of audiology in Lesotho

I was lucky enough to be able to find funding for a brand new audiometer which I collected from Pretoria after our trip back to the UK. With assistance from Matt we installed it in the ENT department at the QEII (to a 28 year old sound proof booth!) and I excitedly started feeling like we could get a proper service of the ground. I purchased a diary for booking patients and we were off. 

The audiometer worked well and the team helped to translate when taking histories from patients where needed.  My first 2 patients were fairly challenging and quite sad cases....both of which would have benefitted from intervention years ago.  One was a 17 year old boy who came with his father and had travelled 7 hours from the far north. He was being referred to psychiatry for lack of speech, limited interaction and altered behaviour...but had never had a hearing test.  He had a moderate to severe hearing loss and evidence of chronic middle ear disease which appears to have been ongoing since he was 6 years old.  The second patient was an 8 year old girl who had meningitis when she was 5 and is likely to have lost her hearing completely in one ear from then. The other ear we are able to fit a hearing aid to. The third patient was a 45 year old man with hearing loss who came back in yesterday to show me his new hearing aid from South Africa (funded for by a friend) – he was delighted and is coming back to have a second hearing aid donated by charity.  

Unfortunately just as word was getting out that the audiometer had arrived....it stopped working. Whether it is the minus temperatures (it is very cold here now!!!) or a blown fuse, I am having to take it back to South Africa for repair. I am using this opportunity to take more equipment for calibrating so that hopefully we can start travelling out of Maseru to run clinics in the rural areas as well as in the hospital.  More news soon.