Week at the Children's Hospital and other ramblings

This week we have been working in the Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital in Accra, the capital city.  It has been a challenging week to say the least.  The hospital is dirty and sanitation is very bad.  It is filled with the sounds of kids crying, coughing, and moaning in pain.  What you do not hear are the sounds of heart monitors, oxygen saturation monitors, fans, or other modern conveniences that we often think of as necessities for quality care.  There is an outpatient department on the first floor where the waiting room is filled with more patients than can be seen by the few doctors in one day.  I spent a few hours in the emergency room on Monday and saw a child unconscious from meningitis and malaria, a child in so much pain from sickle cell disease that he was wheezing, and a mother crying and praying over her toddler who was unconscious from severe dehydration.  In the less than 2 hours I was there I saw 2 cause of death certificates filled out.  There is a 9 month old girl in one of the wards that I have spent a good bit of time with and she has captured my heart.  She was brought in so dehydrated that they could only get the IV started in her head and she is still not really coming around.  Today she seemed to be resting a little more peacefully though.  There is a whole ward of severely malnourished kids and an outpatient malnutrition clinic that is free to the public.  I have gotten to learn a lot and am thankful for the experience.  Today I had a lull in work so I just went and played with some of the kids in the general ward.  I had the best time!  Some of the kids were crying in pain and then immediately stopped as soon as I held them.  I got to play peek-a-boo with a toddler for a while and his little giggle was infectious. It was very rewarding to feel like I was enriching their quality of life, even if only for a few minutes.

The majority of the kids in the hospital are so sick because the parents wait so long to bring them.  There are many reasons:  culture, lack of money, transportation issues, and lack of health education to name a few.  I keep thinking about how children with life threatening illnesses back home can be brought to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the parents can at least know that they are getting the best care possible.  The parents here do not have that comfort and it's heartbreaking.  There is a lack of resources, supplies, money, medicines, and doctors.  Pain meds are rarely given to the kids.  I haven't yet found a bathroom with both soap and running water, so I can only imagine that diseases get passed along.  Kids all around us are literally dying of preventable or easily treatable causes like malaria, severe dehydration, HIV, and malnutrition.  This would never be allowed in America.  It's aweful to watch a parent carry their young child's cause of death slip out the door towards the morgue and knowing that the child would probably have lived if they'd be blessed enough to be born in America.

This is all, obviously, emotionally draining sometimes.  I've been listening to the song "If I Die Young" on my Ipod on the 2 hr ride home from the hospital this week.  These lyrics make me think of the kids:

"If I die young, barry me in satin.  Lay me down on a bed of roses... Lord, make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother.  She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors. Life ain't always what you think it ought to be.  Ain't even gray but she burries her baby.  The sharp knife of a short life... And I'll be wearing white when I come into Your kingdom...  Who would have thought forever could be severed by the sharp knife of a short life..."  Here's the link to the song:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NJqUN9TClM

Count your blessings today.  Love from Ghana.