Smiles and Tears

The last couple days have been a bit crazy. Yesterday morning started out normal enough walking to the school in the morning. Just before we got to the school Tania saw a new family she has been trying to get into the school so their baby can get some desperately needed medical attention. So as we were headed to the school, she took the baby and the mom followed with the other 2 children. The baby is 3 months old and not bigger then a new born. Tania looked at me and said, "well, looks like you have 1 week to save a babies life".

Once we got to the school, the work began. As I said Aarti is 3 mo old. She weighs 1.9 kg (4.1lb) and the height of a newborn (52cm). Her tongue is coated white, she can't hold her head up, she has a firm round little belly, and is having green mucousy poops.... but on the plus side, she is alert, looking around with big wide eyes, and constantly smiling! Her mom told us that the baby is not hungry and just sleeps all day. So basically she doesn't get fed because she isn't crying. I think also, the parents are working all day picking garlic to sell, and Aarti's 2yr old brother still can't walk so has to be carried around all day. A sleeping baby, is easy.

Someone, for some reason, at some point, donated a bunch of infant formula to the school (and not a formula company). I'm pretty sure this is the first time I have EVER been happy to have formula around! And even better it's not expired AND we have clean water at the school and syringes!!

So, feeding began. Because she hasn't been eating (breastfeeding very minimally) her tummy can't handle very much at all. Initially, the formula just ran out of her mouth. It took a few minutes before she started to swallow it, then started sucking at the syringe, then her little arms and legs started squirming and she was sucking madly (although weakly) at the syringe, crying when the formula wasn't given. I only gave her a few ml's but we did it 3 times yesterday. We also sent her into see a dr as we had another young boy going to see the eye specialist. Unfortunately the dr wouldn't even look at her due to her current state. She is to see a different dr (whom Tania says will see her) tomorrow, so hopefully they take her.

While we were dealing with baby Aarti, one of the older babies at the school (whom we call crying baby because he is always crying) was crying, his crying set off one of the other toddlers crying, then starving baby (Aarti, whom we have very morbidly been calling dying baby- please don't think this heartless or calous) and her mom left for the hospital leaving the two older siblings behind screaming until she got back.... I had a headache within 10mins of getting to work yesterday. That was just the tip of the chaos.

In between feeding baby and trying to do assessments on her siblings and mother, I was also trying to sit down and go through charts and form with Vikas who at this point is a bit overwhelmed with everything, but excited and keen.

Today was a much calmer day, although lots of excitement as well! Today Kokila came home!!

First Aarti and her family came in (on their own, which was really exciting). Her mom had dressed her up for the occasion in a clean ruffly black and gold dress. As I was mixing formula, she promptly pooped and peed on me (they babies don't wear diapers of any sort), luckily mostly missing me!

After feeding Aarti, it was off to the hospital with Tania and Vikas to pick up Kokila and her mom to bring her home! She was sitting up on the edge of her bed waiting to go home (it took us over an hour to get to the hospital because of traffic). After sitting for another 30-40mins the Dr showed up to give Tanya and I instructions for Kokila as she will be staying at the school for the next week. He was very thankful to Tanya and touched by the amount of effort and care she has shown towards Kokila over this past month. There where some happy tears that she is finally able to come home and at how well she has pulled through. She has a long way to go before the scars and skin grafts are fully healed, and still has a couple dressings that will need to be looked after but they are healing well.

The taxi ride back to the school only took 20 minutes and I sat in the back with Kokila as she quietly took everything in, holding my hand the whole time. Back at the school most of the kids and staff had already left by the time we arrived, but her brothers and sisters were there to great her as well as a couple of the staff. Because she has quite extensive burns to her face and body and her hair has been shaved, I think a number of people where in a bit of shock when they saw her and just sat there staring not saying anything unfortunately :( It was great to see her little brother excited to see her and climb up on the table to hold her hand then climb over to sit on the bench beside her! About 30 people stopped by to see (many just to look at her which involved them being asked to leave). We had set up a matress in one of the classrooms after having some of the staff clean and bleach everything. Unfortunately, being on the floor was too difficult for Kokila, so she had to basically fall down onto the mattress.

Being exhausted, she tried to sleep but then was in pain (I think more emotionally then anything) so Tania sat with her for a bit while she cried, then I took over as Tania and the other teachers had to leave to do some other work. I spent the next 45mins sitting on the mattress with Kokila laying in my lap sleeping.

We (the boys who work at the school) set up a bunch of wooden boxes and placed the mattress on them so it is up off the floor, as well as put up a gate to keep the rats out, and set up a makeshift bucket toilet (as she is not strong enough to use the squat toilet at the school). We will see in the morning how things went tonight and re-adjust anything that needs to be.

It has been an exhausting few days, but with some good results. Tonight we are heading to have a games night to end the week with a little bit of fun!