A woman walked up to the clinic holding a lethargic boy in her arms. She didn’t hurry. She didn’t scream. In fact, she barely even asked to be seen. Saturdays are reserved for emergencies, so I went to assess her. The translators standing by explained that the child had been sick and in town for the last three days.

One of them asked her as to why she was just now coming. I saw no hope in her eyes. That worried me.

He was feverish, lethargic and severely pale. I called for Dennis as I have no experience getting IV lines in 8 month olds, and started on a paracheck (test for malaria). I was pretty certain it was malaria. It was.

When the translator asked her how long he had been sick, she explained that she had come from a far village. She had been in Tonj three days but… was being treated by the witch doctor.

The witch doctor diagnosed him with heart problems and even withdrew ‘charcoal and goat hair’ from it. But it didn’t help.

So, as a last resort and even as a bit of an after thought, she brought him to us. When we got him the quinine he needed, he immediately started getting better. We kept him overnight… but he was able to go home the following day.

Doctors one! Witch doctor zero

Our clinic has just added laboratory services! Suzy has been doing a personal fundraiser to raise money for this much needed service. We’ll be able to test for malaria, ghiardia, amoebas and many diseases. We brought in lab technician from Kenya to start up and run the lab. His name is George and is a great addition to our team. He is a on fire Christian and has a great sense of humor. He is the current Scrabble champ and won’t let us forget it.

A girl from Switzerland who came here last year did a fundraiser and raised $5000 to buy supplies for our maternity ward.. Her money was used to buy much needed supplies like a delivery bed, two baby cradles, lamp, ambubags, suction machine, cabinet, stool, and many other items. They arrived on the truck a few weeks ago and it has been fun to see them set up and used in the clinic

Yesterday morning, just as I was getting ready to start a full day of prenatals, in walked a labor. She was having contractions every 3 minutes and they were super strong. When I found out this was her first child, I was surprised she wasn’t making more noise.

When I checked her dilation, she was already fully with the head at a +2 station (for you midwives out there). But when I looked at her, she just smiled back at me calmly and fell asleep between contractions. I would never have guessed her to be so close to delivering.

Not long afterward, she started pushing spontaneously but there was little progress. She was just getting the feel of things. After an hour or so, she worried that the baby was never going to come out.

I explained to her that she had yet to push effectively and showed her how to do it again. She got serious (with a little help from me) and found her groove. A beautiful baby boy was born just 30 minutes later!

When he came out, I was astonished. He was so long. It felt like he would never end! He was more legs and arms than anything else but also had the typical oblong shaped head of a first-time mom.

She laughed when she saw his funky shaped head and tried to rub it back down. She giggled at how funny he looked and then… we all joined her. It was such a fun birth. She was so thrilled to have his little boy.

She was so excited to push and was so strong! Would you believe she never once screamed out in pain. Even during the crowning stage she didn’t make a peep. The only noise coming from our room was that of laughter and a baby crying!

After lunch, I was quickly called back to the clinic because a woman had delivered prematurely and her placenta was ‘stuck’ inside. My translator looked worried and so I rushed. I told the rest of the staff (who had started lunch a bit later due to other emergencies) about it and they agreed to come soon. However, Jessica (volunteer/Nurse) hurried after me, eager to learn as much as she could. I wasn’t told anything more than that the baby was preterm and the mom had a ‘stuck’ placenta. The last time this happened the placenta was sitting in the vaginal vault and needed the slightest tug to come out. Today was a much different case. When I walked into the room, the mom was covered in blood and motionless on the bed. A family member was holding her baby, wrapped in a blanket and gasping for air. The baby girl only breathed every 15 seconds or so and her heart rate was a cool 60 bpm. (It should have been in the 130 range). She was dying. I started to resuscitate and Jessica was quick to help with chest compressions. The Ambu-bag we had was much to large (due to her prematurity). She had lots of secretions and was pale. Caleb and Maggie came in shortly afterward. Caleb took over my job in resuscitation and Maggie helped me assess the mom. All the while, I kept calling out for more information. When was the baby born? How long has she been bleeding? How much blood has she lost? How long was her labor? How many babies has she had? Which ones of them are alive? Has this happened before? The story unfolded for me question by question as I continued to assess the young girl. This was her forth pregnancy. Each of her babies were born premature. Each of them died. I remember looking over to the table where Caleb and Jessica worked tirelessly on the baby girl. She wasn’t breathing spontaneously. Her heart rate would jump from 30 to 100 depending on resuscitation efforts. It didn’t look good. Meanwhile, Maggie was getting an IV started as we could see the young mom was in hypovolemic shock. Her blood pressure was bottoming out. Her pulse was through the roof. She had been bleeding non-stop since birth (which was 3 1/2 hrs earlier). I could see her heart beating in her chest. I didn’t need to take a pulse to count it. When I evaluated her placenta, it was partially detached (the reason for all the bleeding). What’s more, is it was very determined to stay that way. I had to do a number of maneuvers to knock it loose. But when it came out, all the membranes were still inside. My only option then was to do a manual exploration for the membranes. This is not comfortable but it was the only way I could be sure the membranes wouldn’t continue to cause bleeding. Fortunately it worked. Her bleeding stopped. A second IV line was started, as we flooded her with fluids. She got 5 liters before her blood pressure even remotely stabilized. She was pale as a sheet, desperately needing the one thing we couldn’t give her; blood. The baby died but she didn’t. I think the baby could have survived if she was born in the clinic. But even then, I’m not sure. Maggie tells me that babies born that early here rarely survive. The young mom, turned her head from me in sorrow when I told her but she didn’t cry. So I cried for her. I cannot begin to fathom her pain. Four time pregnant. Four time heartbroken. The only reason I can think of her premature labor is an incompetent cervix. I told her how to fix this problem next time she gets pregnant. But I’m not sure she believed me. I think she’s lost hope of every having a baby live. Pray for her. She’s in desperate need of blood but her family doesn’t have the resources to get her to the hospital for treatment. I think she will recover. It might take months without the blood but it’s still possible.