Subject: Please let this be a silent night.
Baby born without a hole between his nasal canal and his
throat. James made one. Baby is doing awesome thanks to awesome parents.
Cerebral malaria comma patient woke up tonight! Commas scare
me. He's only 20.
18 year old boy with menengitis. He will recover.
10 year old boy with menengitis. I honestly don't know if he'll
make it. He's so frail and muscles are so contracted already.
Young girl with nephrotic symndrome. Her whole body is holding
water and I'm afraid she'll die. The last girl with this same
problem died right in front of me.
Josephine said things were "Lapia".....Good! She seemed in good
spirits and didn't wail tonight. Foot is still very infected.
Dressing changes twice a day now.
Sweet little man caring for his wife. She has malaria. He is the
best little husband.
Another woman with malaria....it's so bad I don't think she'll make
it....and there's nothing more we can do for her.
Woman recovering from an emergency hysterectomie. She's had no
children yet. Her husband will probably send her back to her father
and take another wife.
Hippo bite. Man was knocked out of his dugout and into the water by
a Hippo. He escaped with only big bites out of his leg. Lucky.
PS. This is the same river I swim in. Ah!
Baby who had a huge portion of the skin on his belly removed because
of infection. His dressing change makes me cringe.
This is only a tiny spoonful of the problems that are resting in this
hospital tonight. I'm listening to Silent Night on the computer
right now and the words are just echoing in this little nurses
station (cement room).
Sleep in heavenly peace babies.
Please sleep through the night.
All is calm and all is bright, Josephine,
....please, let your mind rest for tonight.
3 hours later:
Even as I have just written this email and prayed for this to be a
silent night, I just got back from carrying a lady to the
morgue. The woman with really bad malaria...she just died. What a
helpless feeling when everything you can do (all the treatments
available) are not enough. She was 70 and this was the oldest
patient I've seen yet. All of her family will come and get her in
the morning. This is the first time I've actually been in the
morgue. It still is covered in blood from the massacre in
October. Sometimes this place feels like a real nightmare.
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