We had two Caesarean sections in the morning, but the Lord guided my hands
and about 12.30 we
had already finished the second C-section
and both mothers and
their children were in good
condition. After leaving the room, full of heat and sweat,
I got hit by a
queue of angry patients who were complaining
that they had been told to wait with a full bladder for an ultrasound of
the abdomen. Many of them were
from Isiolo, which is really far away,
and worried about not being able to find
public transport to get back home.
It therefore required a new sacrifice: after lunch,
forgetting the little siesta, we began another adventure in the out-patient, trying to give the maximum attention to the problems of each. The problems we encounter here are
often complicated, requiring
much attention and patience. It is especially difficult with women who are unable to have children. So often there is nothing to do for them, because
their problems are chronic
and practically insoluble. But how to tell them that? An adoption is not
accepted here. The husband is usually
considered immune to sexual problems in the area, so it's always the woman to be held
responsible for any type of infertility.
If a woman is
unable to have children, there
are two options: either she becomes a second wife and has to accept that her husband has another
partner to have children with (and therefore that
second partner will receive far more
attention), or is simply sent
away (it seems like in the Old
Testament!). Bearing in mind the local traditions, we know that only men can inherit and the woman must
receive the support from her
husband. It means that a woman rejected because of
infertility
is actually left with no chance for a happy life. Nobody is going to marry her and she has no right to inherit neither the
money nor the ground from the husband who had repudiated her. The out-patient
is then made even more stressful by the continuous arrival of children in bad condition who often come to us when
it is too late. As in the
case of Joy, who had been treated
for 4 days with an
antibiotic syrup at
the dispensary of the village:
the mother was told that the child had pneumonia and that this was the reason of his panting. In fact, when Joy came to Chaaria,
she had a hemoglobin level of
3 grams (his
blood was almost as water). She was so collapsed
that the veins were not visible and I
had troubles with inserting a jugular vein cannula. A race against time began. Her
blood group was 0 positive and
we did not have compatible blood in the hospital. We
asked the mother to donate,
but she said she was pregnant again. All that remained was to find
a donor elsewhere. We asked the volunteers, but nobody was 0 positive.
We were therefore forced to ask Mururu (our mentally disabled friend from Buoni Figli Center) who agreed
on giving his blood provided that we allow him to go home for some days. We collected the blood, but right after connecting it to the Joy’s vein, the
girl passed away. We did not
arrive on time. Once again, the death was stronger.
The mother’s despair gripped our hearts,
but we could not stop. Other patients were waiting for our help, so we left the mother with Judith who has
tried to console us
while we continued with other outpatients. It was 6:30 p.m. when I
decided to take a coffee. There were no more patients tonight so maybe I could
go and pray with the community.
Br Beppe
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