A Heartbreaking Morning and a Heartwarming Afternoon

(Written by Anne)

Today marked the end of our first week at Chidamoyo. Today was difficult because we found out that the 5 yr old girl we had worked with and wrote about in a prior blog post had passed away last night. We did the best we could to provide each other with the support we needed to start to process this news and then focus on providing the best care we could to our patients today.

Not many patients came into the clinic this morning, so we spent it working on making an outline for a handout we are planning on giving the village healthcare workers. We will present on developmental milestones and signs to watch out for that mean that a family should take their child into the hospital to be seen. We are hoping that education about early signs that a child may have impaired motor development will allow for children to receive earlier intervention and have overall better outcomes.

In the afternoon, the older man who had taken us to his home yesterday to visit his son with cerebral palsy came to the hospital and we gave him a gait belt and wheelchair to use to help with being able to transport his son to the field where he works, so he no longer would have to spend his days locked alone at home. It was very touching when this quiet humble older man thanked us for all of our help and told us how he would no longer need to lock his son inside when he went to the field to work, but instead could now take him along. He told us that the way we taught him how to help transfer his son was so much easier for him and felt this would keep him from being injured and allow him to take his son to more places. It felt very rewarding to feel like we were able to make a significant difference for this family.

We saw a number of other patients later today, including many patients with orthopedic conditions. Treatments we provided included different taping methods, therapeutic exercises, and even making a modified cushion for someone with coccygeal pain. The plan for tomorrow is to observe rounds in the morning and re-visit a small child in the inpatient pediatrics department with Cerebral Palsy. We will give the mother some additional ideas to encourage progress towards developmental milestones and give some additional advice about how to manage scar tissue from a prior surgery the child had to treat osteomyelitis. 

Update: We heard a couple days later that the man had gone home and immediately wheeled his son down to the township to show his neighbors. Apparently he was saying, "this is the first time I have taken my son for a walk outside". And that folks, is what it is all about. (Tears in my eyes.)