first blog - Thursday April 5, 2012
I am in one of my least favorite places... An African Hospital...
Don't worry, this isn't going to be the usual rant about how much I hate medical care in Third World Countries....
Elliott is at 4 month old baby boy. He and his twin sister, Praise were born Dec.
3, 2011. They were abandoned by their mother for reason's that are
unknown to me. They live at one of the orphanages I do work with here in
Cameroon. They have been there since Dec. 16, 2011.
While
visiting the orphanage yesterday I noticed his little body stiff as a
board. His hands were drawn up and twisted in an nu-natural way and his
fingers would not extend. His legs were crossed at the ankle and he
didn't
move unless you moved him. Another child came to feed him and food
just fell out of his mouth. His breathing wasn't clear and he was
crying.
If you
know me at all, you can imagine what was going on inside of me. I was
crazy. I called for the nurse, I called for the care-takers and I called
for the Director to find out what happened. God has done a miracle in
my life with the fact that I didn't scream and yell... The child didn't
look like this the last time I saw him. After getting flimsy
explanations for what was going on, I looked for my phone to call my
trusted Cameroonian Doctor. He was away at a medical conference and I
wasn't able to reach him.
Fortunately
for me, my fellow Missionary and next door neighbor is an American Dr. I
described what I saw to her and after consulting my favorite
Cameroonian nurse, we headed to the
orphanage for a consultation and trip to the local hospital. Elliott
was basically the same when we got back but now he was also burning up
with fever.... We headed up the mountain to the hospital...
Kudos
to the staff at the hospital, they treated him immediately without
payment up front.... Sadly, 3 American's coming in with a Cameroonian
infant makes a big difference. There is no expectation that you will not
pay... The same was true today when I took him for his chest X-ray. The
technician called us back and asked for a receipt for the X-ray up
front. I told him I had already paid a deposit for services and they can
deduct their fee from it. He looked at me quizzically and said, "Are
you Cameroonian?" NOPE. Are you a Black American? YEP. O.K. I will do it
because I am sure that you will pay. I will take your medical card
after we do the X-ray and confirm with the cashier." Thank you very
much.... I appreciate the service but the death glares from the 40 or
so others in the waiting room, not so much... It's not right. Prejudice
is prejudice, but I needed this child to be seen and treated
immediately.
He
was 4 months old as of yesterday. He weighed a whopping 4 kilo's which
is around 8 pounds. This is the size of a new-born... I was only
slightly mean with the nurse who was trying to take his blood. Gentle,
gentle I kept saying.... I could feel my fellow Missionary telling me to
shush in her head... don't aggravate them Toya, let them do their
job... Yeah sure, taking blood with no gloves, without washing hands and
placing the IV needle on a dirty table...sure I won't aggravate them...
I will admit, I was much nicer that I usually am with hospital staff.
Pray for me. I don't have patience when the lives of innocent children
are at stake.
Today has been
a bit rough. Elliott has screamed for a good portion of the day. He
refused food and water until about 2 this afternoon. I finally got him
to drink 2 oz. of milk. He is now sleeping soundly. After being on IV
fluids for about 16 hours, the Dr. has taken him off and given him a
break. He wants to see how much food he will eat and my goal is to get
him to take at least 5 bottles... so far, not so good.
Please
send up some prayers for Mr. Elliott... He needs to eat. We need to
find out why he doesn't want to eat and what has caused this overall
problem. I'm also almost positive that he can't see. Praying that this
is a temporary neurological problem with everything else that is going
on.
He is a sweetheart. He loves to be
sang to and he loves to rock. He has to be on his belly to be
comfortable. Being on his back or his side is terrible, the screaming
escalates... I have figured out how to
feed him while he is facing me. This has been the only way he eats and
doesn't throw up. PROGRESS. His little arms and legs were a bit more
flexible today so I'm thanking God for answered prayers already.
I
ordered a crib to be made so that I can take him home with me when he's
discharged. That's going to be fun. I'm sure my heart and the hearts of
my fellow Missionaries will break even more with him in the house.
Pray
for my heart as I am extremely angry with this situation. It doesn't
make sense to me that a child can be in this much pain and no one does
anything about it. My attitude with his former care-takers is not a good
one right now. I don't think I will ever get answers but for now, I
will do what needs to be done to take care of this sweet little child.
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