Little Girl Blessed

Tuesday Clinic

The first time we met Blessed we thought she was dead. Her mother brought her into clinic and sat down on the bench next to our group and patiently waited her turn. Her seven-week-old baby, Blessed, was wrapped in numerous layers on her lap. She patiently waved over our translator, Ellah a Kenyan physician who was helping translate for us. Ellah calmly looks over to us and states, “It’s an emergency.” Side note: all Kenyans seem to speak impossibly soft and are difficult for loud Americans to hear.

After Ellah states that it’s an emergency, we come over and see this tiny infant looking blankly into the air. After a few agonizing seconds, she blinks. Feeling her forehead, she is burning up. Dr. Walter Scott, a pediatrician was called over. He states that she is having a seizure and feeling her head quickly determines it’s a febrile seizure.  While we spend time worrying about how to stop the seizure, he’s worrying about the cause of the seizure. Her mother begins to unwrap the multiple layers that surround the child, which seems to grow smaller the more clothing/blankets she takes off. Finally, we see her thin body and are able to examine her. Her pulse is racing and she is using accessory muscles to breath. Wheezing is heard over her chest. She probably has pneumonia and needs more than we are able to give her. Dr. Scott immediately orders a shot of antibiotics to give to her before we transport her to the hospital.

            The shot is brought over and her leg looks too small to give a shot. It is so thin. Blessed’s mother states that she has been feeling like this for one month and has been seen and treated at the local hospital without improvement. She couldn’t afford to go back. Three of us got into the van to bring her to the local hospital while Ellah stayed behind but called the hospital and told them to expect us.

            We arrived at the hospital and men with guns opened the gates to the parking lot. We got off the bus and followed our translator to a room full of five women who were completely confused by our presence. The nurses here are on strike.  Evidently, a different civil service group goes on strike every week according to the locals. We then go to the ER check in and jump to the front of the line. Robert was there and said he had just gotten off the phone with Ellah and was waiting for us. He briefly looked at the child, did an exam, and spoke with the mother (Lillian) and decided to admit the child for work up and treatment for possible pneumonia. We tried to pay ahead of time but we told to wait until discharge. Robert was told numerous times to take good care of Lillian and baby Blessed and that we would pay.

            We haven’t been able to get back to the hospital to check on baby Blessed and pay the hospital bill, but Mama Joyce, the medical coordinator here, has been in contact with Lillian. We hope to check up on them soon and see the progress Blessed has made. This is just one example of the times when you feel like you really made a difference. We hope to have many more in our remaining 2 weeks of clinic. 

Anna Craig