A few days ago, one of the girls here, Matina, had a seizure. Matina is about 12 years old and is a recently cane to live at the Nazareth Home for God's Children. Matina is on seizure medication, but the other morning she had a seizure at school. We did not find out about it until a few hours later. Matina was a little out of it and couldn't open one of her eyes, which was tearing. Matina does not speak English, except to repeat what is said to her, so figuring out where it hurts and piecing together what happened is difficult to say the least.
Our fear was that she may have a concussion, so Sister Stan decided we should take her to the hospital in Yendi. I had never been there before. We have an "in" there because one of Sister's nieces, Edna, is a nurse at the Yendi Hospital. It is considerably smaller than the Tamale Teaching Hospital. Although it services about 20 villages surrounding it, there are few doctors working at this hospital. I have been making jokes about being constantly reminded of "Little House on the Prairie" here, but in the case of the Yendi Hospital, it is an accurate description.
We were first taken to the NICU where Edna works. She currently has 3 babies there. I could not see any heart monitors, the babies were just in cribs, and spirally wired cribs at that. Paperwork was all over the place and there was no place to wash hands or any gloves or hand sanitizers to be found. Next we were taken to the office of the hospital to begin a folder for Matina, who has never been there before. People waiting to see a doctor were laying around everywhere. With so many villages looking for care here, and limited doctors, Edna told me that it could be days until some of these people were seen. They just pick a spot and camp out until called.
Everywhere we went was dirty, with paint chipping off the walls and numerous bugs everywhere. There were rooms filled with broken wire-framed beds and, seriously, the filth everywhere was so depressing. Maybe in the United States we are too germ phobic, but here seems to be the exact opposite.
We got to see a doctor, thanks to Edna, but we received a lecture on the medicine not having the time to completely enter her system and we have to be patient to see if the seizures stopped. We tried to explain that we thought she may have a concussion, but no one took her vitals or did any kind of exam on her other than a no touching visual exam. The doctor then told us he needed labs done on her, and that when we were done to come back to him. So we went and Matina got a pin prick blood sample taken (again, no gloves or proper sanitation to be found), then returned to the doctors office only to find that he had left.
We saw another doctor, and basically went through the same stuff again, then he told us to keep her on the medication she is on for 3 months, keep a record of her seizures, then return and they would see what to do next.
Thankfully, Matina did not have a concussion, and we have our Buffalo medical saviors to thank for helping us figure that out. I find the orphanage in-between a rock and a hard place here in terms of hospitals. On one side, you have the Tamale Teaching Hospital which has better equipment and more doctors and specialists, but you can never see them. (Elizabeth went yesterday, and they told her to come back today) And on the other side, you have the equivalent of hospitals in America about 200 years ago at the Yendi Hospital, where we can see doctors because of our "in", but what is even done for the patients??
By the way, an update on Mary... Mary's mother left yesterday. Her husband contacted her and told her to come to him. So she knelt on the ground and begged Sister to let her go. Sister did, but the mother left Mary without a backwards glance, no hug or kiss or tears at all for her baby. She practically skipped out of the orphanage. My heart is crushed... but I do have a new sleep-over friend!! Mary is staying in my room for the time being, until we can get her on a regular sleeping schedule. She had a good night last night, she only woke up twice to eat, and loves to be sung to. Her favorite song is "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman." xo
