It is all such a shock when reality that you are in a 3rd world country hits you square in the face. So many things we as Americans take for granted, central air and heat and insulated houses (our house is freezing at night this week and it isn’t even winter here yet -- we are in a house not a shanty like so many that go to our CarePoints). We have food 3 times a day, shoes for our feet when it rains and we rarely have to walk or hitch a ride when we have to go someplace.
Yesterday the level of medical care here hit harder than ever. I was at Mangwaneni, Mbabane (there is a Mangwaneni in Manzini as well) for the medical clinic for the CarePoints I oversee. We are able to do what sometimes seems so little; treating for worms, colds, diarrhea and respiratory infection. Teresa is able to catch and refer some children and adults with TB or possible HIV to other facilities to start treatment. Many of these children would go untreated until they had to be admitted into the hospital. So it is something. 
As we were leaving last night, we had said our goodbyes to each other and were getting into our separate vehicles, when Teresa witnessed a child dart out from the sidewalk across the street as a kumbi (minivan type bus service) came by and struck him. She said she heard the thud as the child was hit and thrown to the opposite side of the road. A doctor visiting from the states was with Teresa. I was walking up the hill in the opposite direction when I heard the commotion. As I came on the scene I found one sandal on one side of the kumbi and one on the side near where the child lay. I picked them up and went to assist. Teresa said later that she had been expecting the worst after hearing the loudness of the impact. The boy was about 7 if I had to guess. He does not attend our CarePoint according to our teachers who were also there helping tend to the child. His head was scraped and bleeding but other than that he miraculously seemed to have no broken bones, internal injuries or collapsed lung. We worked to calm him as he wanted to jump up and run away. The doctor had us keep him still and try not to move in case of a neck or back injury (normal procedure in the states after an accident). The friend who had been with the child ran to the homestead to find a parent but they were not home yet. Teresa had called the ambulance. Reality started to sink in. If we hadn’t been there he might have tried to run home and collapse there or someone could have jerked him up and put him in a vehicle and taken him to the hospital with no regard for his neck. But we were there, the doctor insisted on waiting for the ambulance. We kept checking that the little boy knew his name, stayed alert and that he had no other pain elsewhere. We prayed for and over him. We kept him still and did not let him move. Then the ambulance came. What a relief . . . or so we thought. They pulled out the stretcher and attempted to just “plop” the child on it with no regard to keeping the neck & back straight. They put him fighting to get up into the ambulance. As I looked inside, the ambulance was a shell with stretchers in it. Nothing like the ambulances that roll up in America – no backboards, no oxygen, no medications or IVs or anything!!! This is the reality!! This is the lack that is dealt with daily by the residents. It is so hard to comprehend!!! One of the teachers went with the child in the ambulance, no medical personnel. After we left the scene I ran into a co-worker who hugged me and let me share what had happened and then went on to share that the ER would not be much better than the ambulance at attending to this child. The x-ray machine wasn’t probably working and they would treat his head lacerations and probably send him home as long as he was alert and not complaining anything else hurt. It pains me to think what could have happened, but it didn’t. God was merciful and we pray the child will be fine. The faces of the children on this blog our children from that CarePoint but not the child hit the child who was struck. But it could have been. Tragedy could easily be around the corner from any of these children. Please keep them in your prayers and pray for divine protection for each of them. Hug your own child or even your doctor this week and tell them how much you appreciate them.
(Note: The pictures in this blog are of children from the Mangwaneni CarePoint but are not the child in the accident.)
3 comments:
Cool post Sandy. Are you a nurse?
Wow! What a story Sandra. I'm thankful you all were there to help the little boy. I think of the children at the Care Points all the time. We still have that poster of Boy Boy Otis from the fundraiser and my boys talk about him often. We will continue to pray for you and everyone involved with the Care Points.
No I'm not a nurse.
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