Dr. Giddings, MD

21/12/2025

Plan your career wisely.

In medicine, higher financial reward often reflects longer and more demanding training, greater responsibility, and higher stakes. Yet across all specialties, one principle remains constant: delivering the best possible care to the patient.

No jealousy, no comparison. Choose the path that aligns with your purpose, then commit fully and pursue it relentlessly.

Liberia, when? 🤔
Even if not the absolute figures, at least the organization: clear structures, defined roles, fair margins, and transparent disparity across cadres. That, too, is part of respecting the profession.

18/12/2025

My routine?
Left home at 5:00 am this morning and just got back. We go again at 5:00 am tomorrow. Surgery is not for the faint-hearted.

16/12/2025

Surgical Day 💥💥💥
Festive season but still here doing the Lord's work 🙏🙏🙏🙏
Compliment of the Season to you and yours.

13/12/2025

Our daily habits in this country do not match our health sector. I wonder if we really know this. I sit in the ED and see people coming with injuries from their daily routine that we don't have the system to treat. It breaks me so much.

Live carefully, my friend.

13/12/2025

In surgery, we hold our instruments in unique ways😊.

Pay attention 😁

12/12/2025

Get POP (Plaster of Paris) in your facility and stabilize the fracture before referring to Orthopedics. If you can’t manage the case, at least perform the basics. That piece of cartoon or stick people are still using is outdated for modern healthcare in Liberia, mehn. We need to step up for our patients.

Plaster of Paris is a medical casting material made from calcium sulfate hemihydrate. When mixed with water, it undergoes an exothermic reaction and reverts to calcium sulfate dihydrate, forming a hard, supportive cast for fracture immobilization.

This helps the patient so much. Good immobilization of a fracture prevents complications, reduces pain, and improves outcomes. Let’s raise the standard of emergency fracture care in Liberia.

Let’s do it ✊🏾🇱🇷

12/12/2025

11/12/2025

How do you handle it?

10/12/2025

Margibi New Seat 🪑

10/12/2025

Which blade have you been using?

Blade 10:

Primary: Routine skin incisions, superficial cuts, opening fascia, full‑thickness skin flaps, soft‑tissue excision

Additional: Trauma laceration extension, debridement, abscess I&D extension

Handle: No. 3

Blade 11:

Primary: Arteriotomy, stab incisions, abscess drainage, laparoscopic port entry

Additional: Chest tube stab, cricothyrotomy, tendon release, sinus tract incision, vascular puncture

Handle: No. 3

Blade 12:

Primary: Suture removal, oral/mucosal incisions (ENT/periodontal)

Additional: Tonsillar dissection, palatal surgery, parotid duct exposure, curved dermatologic cuts

Handle: No. 3

Blade 14:

Primary: Curved skin/soft‑tissue incisions, minor dissection

Additional: Large curved flaps, incisions over joints or rounded surfaces

Handle: No. 3

Blade 15:

Primary: Precision skin cuts, minor procedures

Additional: Plastic surgery, biopsies, pediatric incisions, vascular arteriotomy extension, delicate undermining

Handle: No. 3

Blade 20:

Primary: Large abdominal & orthopedic incisions

Additional: Muscle cutting, fasciotomy, thoracotomy extension, amputations

Handle: No. 4

Blade 21:

Primary: Thoracic & deep soft‑tissue surgery

Additional: Rib resections, retroperitoneal exposure, neck dissections

Handle: No. 4

Blade 22:

Primary: Major abdominal incisions, muscle cutting

Additional: Laparotomy, flank incisions, trauma surgery, vascular access

Handle: No. 4

Blade 23:

Primary: Long sweeping skin incisions, flap surgery

Additional: Mastectomy flaps, reconstructive flaps, large debridement

Handle: No. 4

Blade 24:

Primary: Autopsy & cadaveric dissection

Additional: Thick tissue cutting, musculoskeletal dissection, postmortem organ retrieval

Handle: No. 4

06/12/2025

When you’re not poopooing for days, and your stomach starts to get big, painful, and you keep getting sicker, this may be due to bowel Obstruction.

A bowel obstruction occurs when something blocks the bowel, preventing food, fluid, and gas from passing through normally. Some of the commonest things that can do this are:

✅Hernias

A part of the intestine pushes through a weak spot in the abdominal wall.
👉Can get stuck (incarcerated)
👉Can lose blood supply (strangulated)
💥Causes pain, vomiting, swelling

✅ Adhesions

Bands of tissue form after surgery or infection, causing the bowel to kink or twist.
👉Most common cause of small bowel obstruction
💥Causes crampy pain, vomiting, bloating

✅ Tumors / Cancers

A growth inside or outside the bowel blocks the passage of stool.
👉 A very common cause of large bowel obstruction
👉 Seen especially in colorectal cancer

✅ Volvulus (Twisting of the Bowel)

The intestine twists like a rope.
👉Stops movement and blood supply
👉Common in the sigmoid colon and cecum
💥Severe pain, vomiting, massive distention

✅ Intussusception (Telescoping Bowel)

One part of the intestine slides into another.
👉Common in children
💥Causes intermittent pain, vomiting, sometimes “currant jelly” stool

✅ Impacted Stool (F***l Impaction)

Hard stool blocks the large bowel
👉Common in elderly, bedridden, dehydrated patients.
💥Causes bloating, nausea, and severe constipation

✅ Foreign Bodies

Swallowed objects (kids) or gallstones entering the bowel (gallstone ileus) can block the intestine.

My people, if you see that you aren't going to the toilet as you usually do and you start experiencing any of the above, run to the hospital. The sooner the better.

05/12/2025

If you work in a medical setting, whether as a Doctor no longer doing direct patient care, or any leadership role, remember this:

Your highest priority must always be those providing direct patient care.
The Nurses, PAs, Physicians, Midwives, scrub techs, Lab techs, and all frontline staff who stand at the bedside, face the emergencies, carry the emotional load, and directly touch the patients’ lives.

Your role exists to make their work easier, so that the patient receives the best possible care.

They should have the highest salaries, not you.
Push for their comfort, tools, and amenities, not yours.

A true health system elevates the bedside first.

If you want higher pay, then change your role and return to direct patient care.
Let the highest compensation be where the greatest burden lies - at the bedside, not in the offices.

That's Health Leadership for me🙏