Fuimos a infectología hoy, y fue una experiencia (we went to infectious diseases today, and it was an experience). This post gets pretty intense, and extremely sad. I have been debating about whether to post all of this, but I feel compelled to give you the whole truth. I just want to give you all a heads up, and ask that you keep these children in your thoughts and prayers.
This week, we'll be with some residents - but these residents are super helpful and I'm pretty sure all of them speak English, which is a plus. They explain everything to us in Spanish, pero if we don't understand something, they always take the time to explain it in English. They first warn us to always wash our hands antes y después (before and after) we touch any of the children. Although not all of the diseases are contagious, many are and it would be awful for one of us to pick anything up.
We see kids with anything from whooping cough, Dengue fever, Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cholera, malaria, to pneumonia. Some kids even have multiple diseases. Por ejemplo, we saw a 12 year old girl who had TB, HIV, and nemonía. Just imagine being that sick, your body having no way to fight all of these diseases, and all you can do is lay in a hospital bed. It's just awful. Another little boy had Dengue Fever. Dengue fever is a virus that is spread by mosquitoes; symptoms include a very high fiebre (fever - 104 degrees or more), fatigue, dehydration, headache, joint/muscle pain, presence of a red rash, vomiting sangre (blood), and difficulty breathing. There is no real treatment for it, just fluids and acetaminophen for fever, as well as pain relievers for any muscular/joint/abdominal pain. Well, not only did the child have many of these symptoms, but he also head very swollen lips and sores in his mouth. His lymph nodes were swollen, and they were at first unsure of what else was causing all of these reactions. Upon more testing, they discovered that on top of Dengue, he also had herpes.
As the morning went on, we began asking the residents about common cases and life in the country. I asked because whenever they do physical exams, part of the paperwork includes many preguntas about how the family lives. Por ejemplo: Where do you live? How many people live en la casa? How many beds are there? How many people sleep in each cama? What kind of house is it - tile floors or dirt floors? Etc. It seemed strange at first, but after seeing some of the impoverished areas of the country, you begin to understand why. There are areas of the city called los campos o los barrios, and they remind me of the Projects almost - but worse. There are tons of houses, or apartments, with only one or two rooms in which tons of family members live. Sometimes only 5 people, but sometimes up to 15 people can live in a small house with two beds and a couch. Do the math - there's a lot of people sleeping in each bed. If one person has some contagious disease, you can bet that more than just that one person has the disease. It's extremely sad.
Not only are living conditions rough, but you can imagine the kind of life these people live. My next question was about child abuse - is it common in this country? We had our preconceptions, assuming that there was - many children come in with "trauma". Sadly, the answer is yes. They begin to tell us about some of los pacientes that they see, and my heart just broke for these children.
Caso A: First of all, we find out that burns are very common in this country. It didn't make sense at first, but after hearing this case, I was began to understand. A little boy comes in with his whole hands and forearms just burned layers and layers deep. It turns out, his mother was addicted to cocaine. I guess on one of her highs, the little boy did something to set her off. She turned on the stove and held his hands and arms down until they were sufficiently burned. Thank God, the lady next door heard the mother yelling and the child screaming, and rushed over to take the child away from her and to the hospital. The police got involved, and luckily, this poor child is no longer in the custody of his mother.
Caso B: A dad brings his little girl in to the hospital for a "routine checkup". The doctor goes to give a physical, and the dad has already taken off her Pampers - which he is supposed to let the doctor do. This instantly raised a red flag, and the doctor began to question him as to why he did this, and asks him to put them back on her. He takes the little girl away and puts the Pampers back on in a different room. When he comes back, the doctor continues to question him, and when the time has come to remove her Pampers, they are covered in blood. I don't think this needs further explanation, considering that this is a children's hospital.
It truly breaks my heart to hear that this is common here - I have a very hard time fathoming it to be honest. This really is an experience of a life time. In America, although things like this do happen, it's not very common, and it's even less common for these children to be brought out into a public place such as a hospital. Again, I ask that you keep this children in your thoughts and prayers. Dios de bendiga (God Bless).
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