I know you enjoy seeing my pictures and hearing about my adventures, but I going to post some new stories this time, a bit more sobering. Not about my travels or my life, but about the lives of a few of my patients, cut short by this devastating disease I am working with. I want you to hear only a snapshot about what it is truly like caring for some of these patients. Read no further if you want to believe my life is only spent curing and helping and saving lives.
Last week I went to the local government hospital, to make my usual rounds on the pediatric ward of the hospital. It was a hard day. MDR TB is taking the life of children and adults alike. And other children are losing their mothers, leaving them in the care of other family members. Finally, sick children are not even making it to the hospital, dying before they even reach the doors.
These stories remind me of how hard this disease, HIV, and its comorbidities of TB and malnutrition, have hit this region of the world. For you to understand that families have been devastated by this disease. For you to remember the statistics I could quote to you in my sleep, that approximately one in three people living in this country are HIV positive, that the life expectancy here is the mid 30s. I know that these days there are issues and crises and challenges and devastating stories from all over the world, including in the most well-equipped, most affluent regions of the US. But this is where I work and what I see on a daily basis. I want you to know.
2 comments:
You've only touched on some of these stories so far here. I figured there were many many more. It's no wonder that the comments I am finding on other blogs about education in that area are not stellar. How can people focus on learning, when they have so many other issues to deal with?
Thanks for sharing.
Wow Stephanie, what heartbreaking stories. I will hug my two sweet little girls a little tighter tonight. Thank you for sharing with the rest of us living in our little suburban bubbles.
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