Liberia 3

Thursday 10th May

This morning, when I went to the hospital, I already knew just by seeing Foday's face that something was wrong. Foday is a Liberian doctor who works in the ICU. He's really great, caring and great with the patients. He told me he had to talk to me but preferred to do it later and outside. In the meantime I saw Kristina, one of the expat doctor, who told me the ad news: B. died during the night. Although I knew the chances of survival were very slim and that without a mother and also with the probable mental problems following his malnutrition he's better off, it's still a shock. I really hoped he would make it. Kristina explained to me that the first 3 days were critical. Tonight, it would have been three days. I am just grateful that I didn't see him die.

Liberia and our project is not only about death. So many children come here every day at the hospital to get free treatment and the vast majority come out of this hospital cured. This little girl for example who had malaria is better and will be released tomorrow. Another one who has a bad cough has gone home today smiling. The doctors are saving the lives of so many children. But sadly sometimes you have a case like B. and even though they tried the best they could it wasn't enough to save his life. In Belgium he would have been fine. First of all he wouldn't have been 3,7kg at 7 months and second he would have been hooked on so many machines that would have helped him. In Liberia, one in 5 children dies before the age of 5.

This afternoon, we went with An the midwife to see some deliveries and to check on the new born babies. When we arrived, the nurse told us that a young mm had given birth to a 500gr baby, probably 26 weeks old. The mum was very anaemic and needed to be transported to the hospital next door. We couldn't really wait anymore and carried her as quickly as possible. Once in the hospital, An gave me the baby, that was still alive, for a few minutes to help the mum. I have never seen anything like this before (and I probably already wrote this sentence in this blog but this time I mean it), he was tiny, weighing nothing, looking more like a foetus than a baby.

This trip to Liberia is life changing, at least to me. It's a big cliché, but I won't come back the same person as I was before. Too many things happened. Africa has revealed itself in all its beauty and despair. This trip makes my job worthwhile.