News Exercise #57

Posted on Posted in News Exercise


The opening sentence was difficult to catch. I had to do some Google searching to get the names: “My name’s Doctor Oliver Johnson. I’m a British doctor leading a King’s Health Partners Team out in Connaught Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone.”

Questions:
1) What is his greatest challenge at the moment?

2) What is ‘urgent’ for him?

3) He mentions three numbers from 0:24. What are the numbers, and what do they represent?

4) At the end of that paragraph, at 0:37, he stated his thought on these figures. What did he say?

5) From 0:44 he explains that sometimes he must do something here (in Sierra Leone) that he would never do in the UK. What is it?

6) He said that the hospital must sometimes be closed due to there being too many patients. This is what he said about it from 1:05: “To see, you know, ____ ____ ____ ____ coming, you know, desperately ____, ____, ____, but to know that if we ____ ____ ____ ____ ___, if we don’t close the department, then the ____ ____ ____ ____ ____. So it’s a series of ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ that just scream against what our instincts are as health workers.

7) From 1:24 he describes how quickly the disease develops in a patient. What did he say are three stages?

8) He said that some survivors come back to visit him, and that it shows “there is light at the end of the tunnel”. What does this idiom mean in this case?

Answers:

1) What is his greatest challenge at the moment?
His unit is full, and every day he has to either turn cases away or find other units for them.
2) What is ‘urgent’ for him?
“There is this urgent, urgent need to increase bed capacity.”
3) He mentions three numbers from 0:24. What are the numbers, and what do they represent?
A month ago the WHO said there might be 20,000 deaths
The worst case scenario is more than a million
At the beginning he thought it would be one- or two- hundred cases (100 or 200).
4) At the end of that paragraph, at 0:37, he stated his thought on these figures. What did he say?
“It’s mind-blowing”.
5) From 0:44 he explains that sometimes he must do something here (in Sierra Leone) that he would never do in the UK. What is it?
He said, “Lots of my experiences here have been doing things, as a doctor, go completely against what I would expect. You see a patient collapse, and in Britain I would rush over and do, you know, basic life support. Here, you know, until I’m fully suited up I’ve got to assume that patient might have Ebola. I can’t even go near them.
6) He said that the hospital must sometimes be closed due to there being too many patients. This is what he said about it from 1:05: “To see, you know, mothers with young kids coming, you know, desperately sick, crying, begging, but to know that if we don’t take this step now, if we don’t close the department, then the whole hospital could become overwhelmed. So it’s a series of impossible choices we’re having to make that just scream against what our instincts are as health workers.
7) From 1:24 he describes how quickly the disease develops in a patient. What did he say are three stages?
In the morning they are talking but a little bit weak, a little bit tired, but by the evening they’re pretty confused and frustrated. By the following morning they are dead.
8) He said that some survivors come back to visit him, and that it shows “there is light at the end of the tunnel”. What does this idiom mean in this case?
It means that his efforts are not useless; there is a possibility of some amount of success.