Small Better

The expansive wards at St. Martin de Porres Hospital are social places.  The patient's family attends to those admitted, cooks their food in a large cooking building, and performs many tasks which would be done by hospital staff in the United States.   The "neighbors" in the ward are always willing to translate for patients, to offer advice, and to "correct" the history given you.  "No, he really hasn't been eating well!".  On those sad occasions when someone dies at the hospital,  people will hurry from around the hospital grounds to see what is wrong and to offer condolences to the family of the deceased.

Yesterday I saw a man in the ward who has been ill with a serious lung infection.  I was quite concerned for him until last evening when I stopped by to see how he was doing.  His response to my inquiry as to how he was feeling was "small better".  Happily, today he is again small better which is giving hope that he will do well.   I asked this morning if he was perhaps "much better" (it was worth a try) and was informed that, no, it was just small better.   Regardless, I figure that several days of small better will be just as good as one much better.

The Road Home

It seems like each week at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Mission Hospital has it's own "medical theme".  Recent weeks have been filled with complex malaria, tuberculosis,  or typhoid fever.  Last week it was premature infants.  We have lost one in this last week, the remainder are progressing on their way to the road home.  The trip home for a premature infant here requires the love and attention of many people.  It requires a mother who will get up every three hours for days or weeks initially, around the clock, to express breast milk so that the child may be fed.  It requires attentive nurses to monitor the locally-made incubator and take measures to keep the child warm when the electricity goes off.  In summary, it requires food, warmth, love, and prayers.   Our smallest infant was born this week weighing 1.1 Kg (a bit under 2 1/2 pounds).   When he grows to 2 Kg (just under 4 1/2 pounds) he will be taken out of the incubator to stay with his mother.  This is a time of some concern as the buildings have no heat and the infant must adjust to life outside of the incubator.  When the infants reach 5 1/2 pounds, they are sent with their parents out into the world. 

Our smallest infant this week has a wonderful mother and nurses who care for him as they would their own.  When I first examined him this week, he kicked me.  Hard.   I think he will do well.