Sad news...

     On Friday the triplets' mom came again. She had two babies with her so we asked where the third one was. She said he died on Monday. He was the smallest of the three and was quite malnourished. That is probably what he died from. She had the biggest one of the three with her this time too and I see now why she hadn't ever brought him before. He is big and healthy! I am still worried about the little girl though. A huge thank you to everyone who donated money for milk for these babies! Mirlene told the mom that some of my friends had given money to help her and that made her really smile. We aren't going to give her the money but rather told her she needs to return to the clinic as soon as the milk she has is finished and we will give her more. That way we know the money is being used for formula. She was a very happy mom when she left that day.
     I forgot to write earlier about the child who was born on the road while his mom was on the way to the clinic. This lady has mental problems. She has had one child in the past who died at 7 months of age from cholera. She is probably about 22 years old. She was working for a family, helping cook etc... She slept in their outside kitchen. One night the father of the house raped her. He is probably in his 60's at least. So now she has been living with her parents in a rented room. It is a very sad situation. Anyway, her dad came to the clinic saying she was in labor. We told him to go back home and get her and bring her to the clinic. He went but on the way back the baby was born and fell in the muddy road. Of course it was dark too. So they went back to their house and Trevor drove Mirlene and I and April there in the ambulance. Just try to imagine the scene for a few minutes. Chilly outside, and muddy. We were all wearing boots. It was dark. Someone led us around the least muddy side of the house with their flashlight. We came to a small room that was lit by a burning branch a young boy was holding. It was crowded full of people. There were only two chairs. The lady who had just given birth was sitting in one of them and her mom was holding the baby in the other. The baby was wrapped up in somebody's furry house robe so he was warm but he had a big muddy place on his head and other foreign debris on his body, leaves, dirt, etc...They hadn't cut the cord yet so the placenta is on the dirt floor under another piece of cloth. We had brought clothes and a diaper with us. Also gloves and a scissors. We cut the cord first then we tried to clean the baby off a little before we got him dressed. The mud was dry on his head so the part that didn't rub off stayed. We encouraged the family that the baby needed to nurse that night yet. Amazingly, the mom sat calmly on her chair the whole time we were there. We also told the grandma that she needed to bring the baby to the clinic the next day for us to check him out a little better. She brought him in the next morning. He was still wearing the diaper we had put on him the previous evening and the same clothes. The diaper was cloth of course so was pretty nasty. We did have warm water at the clinic that day so I decided this baby needed a real bath. The family hadn't had hot water so hadn't even washed his face. I gave him a good bath and got him some more clean clothes. They said he was nursing well.

Now that baby is probably a little over two weeks old. One day the mothers dad came to the clinic and said the baby's mom had run off in the night and he couldn't find her and they had no milk for the baby so we gave him a little bit of formula and some water to mix it in. Who knows where the water comes from that they drink. He was back the next day too for some medicine for the baby's mom. She had come back. We have given him some diazepam periodically for her so sent a couple more pills home with him. Ok, enough on that.
     This past week has been very busy at the clinic. There have been many patients every day. One man who came in on Friday had a cyst between his eyes. He had been to several hospitals already but hadn't gotten any help. I numbed it up and cut into it. It was a different kind of cyst than I've ever seen before but I drained it and then the whole sac the cyst had been growing in came out to so I don't think it will come back. He was very happy also. I didn't even have to stitch the incision because it was so superficial. I just covered it with steri-strips and he was finished.  One other thing that has happened this week- we had a nurse practitioner here who was testing women for cervical cancer. She was at the clinic Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It did slow us down a little bit because she was using one of our exam rooms but is a very good thing.
     On Tuesday a patient showed up with a large mass on his back. It was warm like as if maybe it was some type of abscess. I stuck a needle into it.... And got out 100cc of pus! We put him on big doses of antibiotics and he came back on Friday. It was big again so I drained it a second time. I got 50cc of nasty stuff out this time.  I am afraid this man will need this thing to be surgically drained but Fridays aren't good days to send patients to the hospital if you have any other options. Some of the hospitals don't want to accept patients in the evenings or on weekends. So he is supposed to return on Monday. If his back is no better we will send him down to a hospital.