July 4th in Malawi

"For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Surely He shall deliver thee and under His wings shall thou trust." Ps 91

July 4th in Malawi is not a holiday, although the Americans at the ABC campus did have some fireworks to shoot off. We started our day at Kwik-Fit, the mechanic shop, to have the car checked. Looks like we have some relatively minor transmission and oil leaks. Here, minor things have to be fixed or they quickly become MAJOR things. We will have the car back for the 'fix' on Thursday. We made a trip to Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH), which is the main government hospital here in the capital. We transferred little Taona there Thursday evening so that the orthopedist would see her Friday (he is a Nigerian doctor). Apparently the only medical people actually seeing her have been the nurses and Dr. Sonia from ABC - Becky called the orthopedist - oops, he forgot he was supposed to see her. So she has lain in the bed for 4 days with no one seeing her, the bandage NOT changed. We do think she has gotten her antibiotics because Becky had ordered it. There was no nurse on the entire ward - one had called in sick and the other one had taken papers over to another hospital. Think about it. A big pediatric ward, with no nurse on duty. No doctor or clinical officiers making rounds on all the patients. We found a 'dressing' attendant to get the bandages, etc. Of course, they had nothing sterile, not even the normal saline to clean the wound. We changed the dressing, cleaned the wound, and re-dressed the leg. We then wanted to give an injection for pain - the only pain medicine they had on the ward expired in 2010. We gave it anyway. A few calls later and we got promises that the doctor would come today. We shall see. This poor child needs to have her wound surgically debridged, then we will take her back to ABC inpatient for continued treatment. It is beyond frustrating!!

We heard that the Crisis Nursery had a baby in from the village who was sick. They got her to the inpatient ward and we saw her this afternoon. Dr. Young started the treatment for presumptive pneumonia. This little girl is about 14 days old and weighs ~1.6 kg (3.5 pounds). He Dad died in Jan, her Mom died 4 days after she was born. She was with grandmother who has 6 other orphaned kids in her care. Her name is Anatashia and she needs prayers! She is very ill - for the medical folks out there - temp 102 degrees, oxygen saturation was 86%, resp. rate 80, heart rate 130, listless and cyanotic. Dr. Young started her on IM antibiotics immediately. The 'ICU' is a bassinet in the nurses station. There are no monitors. We are lucky we have an oxygen concentrator. We checked her again this evening - her oxygen saturation was up to 98% on 5 liters NRBM, her heart rate was 108. The xray showed left upper and lower lobe pneumonia, and her white count was 21.6. Her chances are slim for survival. She is such a tiny little thing, but she opened her eyes and looked at me once.

On a much brighter note, Jonas, our burn patient, is looking downright perky!! We changed his seizure medications (I think he was overmedicated on the phenobarbital), he is eating, playing some, going outside to sit in the sun. His Dad is happy that his son seems so much better. Our plan is to send him back to the village on Monday with ample supplies for wound care.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Salima to check out Anne's clinic there. Hopefully they will have word on when the container with the medical supplies will arrive. At least we will see the Maseko family and get an update on the project! Pray for travel safety for us and that we find petrol. We have about 3/4 of a tank, but could use a 'top off' and to fill our jerry can. We should return to Lilongwe and Internet Wed. night.

Pictures: Jonas and his Dad. Anatashia - she is so tiny the mask covers her whole face!! The "ICU" - Dora, Dr. Young, Joseph and Becky gathered around the bassinet in the nurses station.