Malnurished children and climbing a mountain!
One more week have past, and now we are soon down to nine weeks left! =)
We are getting in a lot of patients with dehydration and malnutrition nowadays, adn the worst case i saw... was really horrible.
I was in the emergency room, and suddenly a patient attendant came, half running, into me. she just said "I dont know if the child is aliva och dead". I looked at the child, and what I saw almost made me jump back. He was 8 years old, and he was 5 kilos. I was 5 kilos when I was born! Try to picture that, an infants weight on a 8 year old. .Try to picter skin, and bone. Nothing more. His skin was tighly strechted over his face and body, his eyes were big and the tissue around them were just two big cavities. His mouth was wide open, and full of blisters and wounds. His hair was falling off his head, and his skin was so dry it looked like pergement paper. I almost started crying just by looking at him, and I even felt a bit.. discomfort when tuching him at first. He looked dead. Ha had a body of a corpse. But I could feel tiny tiny movements in his limbs, and his eyes were moving around. He was not able to speak, he could only make little whimps. My mind was mixed, i felt anger, sorrow, disgust, frustration and warmth. I just wanted to pick him up and take him home, feed him and dress him.. Anyway, we managed to give him a nasogastric tube, a tube that goes through the nose and down in the stomach. Link managed to get an IV-cannula in on his head. We gave him fluids, but we had to do it very slowly, cause he could go into heartfailure.. I have a picture of him, but i dont even want to put it up here. It was just to sad. But two days later, when I saw him on the ward he was much betteer. Still the same skeletal body, but he sat up and he was more awake. I dont know what will happen to a child like him...
Today it is sunday, and I actually climbed a mountain! =) We went up on Nkhoma mountain, that is 1800 meters high! It was a hprrible walk, and the last 600 meters where like 75 degrees steep, so we really had to climb with both hands and feet. Spot followed us all the way to the top! He is such a good dog.
The top was amazing, we walked straight in to a cloud, and we waited for it to move on. Everything was completely white! When the cloud moved on, we could see everything. We saw lilongwe, the lake, cape maclear... It was really beautiful. But well, the walk was truly terrible and I will never EVER do that again!
Now, time for dinner!
Bye bye!
We are getting in a lot of patients with dehydration and malnutrition nowadays, adn the worst case i saw... was really horrible.
I was in the emergency room, and suddenly a patient attendant came, half running, into me. she just said "I dont know if the child is aliva och dead". I looked at the child, and what I saw almost made me jump back. He was 8 years old, and he was 5 kilos. I was 5 kilos when I was born! Try to picture that, an infants weight on a 8 year old. .Try to picter skin, and bone. Nothing more. His skin was tighly strechted over his face and body, his eyes were big and the tissue around them were just two big cavities. His mouth was wide open, and full of blisters and wounds. His hair was falling off his head, and his skin was so dry it looked like pergement paper. I almost started crying just by looking at him, and I even felt a bit.. discomfort when tuching him at first. He looked dead. Ha had a body of a corpse. But I could feel tiny tiny movements in his limbs, and his eyes were moving around. He was not able to speak, he could only make little whimps. My mind was mixed, i felt anger, sorrow, disgust, frustration and warmth. I just wanted to pick him up and take him home, feed him and dress him.. Anyway, we managed to give him a nasogastric tube, a tube that goes through the nose and down in the stomach. Link managed to get an IV-cannula in on his head. We gave him fluids, but we had to do it very slowly, cause he could go into heartfailure.. I have a picture of him, but i dont even want to put it up here. It was just to sad. But two days later, when I saw him on the ward he was much betteer. Still the same skeletal body, but he sat up and he was more awake. I dont know what will happen to a child like him...
Today it is sunday, and I actually climbed a mountain! =) We went up on Nkhoma mountain, that is 1800 meters high! It was a hprrible walk, and the last 600 meters where like 75 degrees steep, so we really had to climb with both hands and feet. Spot followed us all the way to the top! He is such a good dog.
The top was amazing, we walked straight in to a cloud, and we waited for it to move on. Everything was completely white! When the cloud moved on, we could see everything. We saw lilongwe, the lake, cape maclear... It was really beautiful. But well, the walk was truly terrible and I will never EVER do that again!
Now, time for dinner!
Bye bye!
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