Elijah and his sister Divine are eating their first meal in Amecet. They are 2 years and 9 months old. They were referred by the Nutritional Unit in Soroti Hospital. Last week their mother came with them, we talked , but she was scared to leave them in Amecet, so we let them go. This week they came back, she was now ready to leave them with us for 2 months. We encouraged her to come and visit them and we could ensure her that the twins will come back to her.. In the meantime, she has to look for a better place to live.. They are malnourished, their weight is 6.5 kg (Divine) and 8 kg (Elijah). They love to eat, do not cry too much and they are already playing and smiling.
The office is next to their room. Yesterday I was working behind the computer and I heard a lot of talking... The toddlers were suppose to have their afternoon nap. I went to check and I saw Divine and Elijah sitting next to each other, in the corner of their beds, talking and laughing..
It was so cute, they are not used to afternoon naps, so they were not sleeping.. In Amecet we do have a daily schedule with nap time, playtime, potty time, snack time etc. It takes some time for them to get used to that.... Elijah had malaria, but has got the treatment for that already.
This was the first set of twins, Loikii and Loru, they are now 9 months old, they were also brought because of malnutrition. They do well, they eat good and they are gaining. Their mother is HIV+, so we also went for tests with them, but they are both HIV -!!! They are also moving around now. Opio Loru (at the right) is moving on his belly all over the place, he is a real bulldozer, and he beats the others sometimes, his brother, Ocen Loikii, is now also moving, on his buttocks and only backwards... So at times he is stuck and we need to come and rescue him. Their parents are very grateful and visit them every Friday.
Then we have Peter (left) and Simon. They are now 19 days old and they were a bit premature when they were born. In the last blog I wrote about them that Peter is only 1.2 kg and Simon 2.3 kg. At the moment we have worries about Peter. When he was 1 week with us, he started to get a fever, we got the doctor to see him and he prescribed IV medication, that afternoon his breathing went bad and we had to put him on our Oxygen machine. We already had started to feed him by NG tube, because he was too weak to suckle from the bottle. It is now for 10 days that we are struggling with Peter. He is still on Oxygen and the IV medication was changed. He is gaining a bit, his weight is now 1.650 kg. So he gained 450 grams. We feed him every 2 hours by NG tube. Then our Oxygen machine broke down... and he really needs the Oxygen, we had the electricity stop, and then you can see his saturation going down... When the electricity stops, we go on on Solar, but when the solar stops, we still have the generator for back up. You have to be prepared!!
But this week it went wrong, in the night the power went off, so the solar was started, the solar also stopped and the staff on night duty couldn't get the generator going....and in the meantime the saturation (amount of oxygen in the blood) went down and down, Then they had called Hope, our nurse, and she brought the baby to the clinic next to us. He could go there on a big oxygen cylinder and Hope stayed with him... And so he made it again to the next day!! But now our Oxygen machine stopped completely, also in the night..... I called Dr. Engulu, the owner of the clinic next to us and asked him if could borrow his portable oxygen machine, the same as we have. He agreed and the staff on night duty and Dominique (who was called over) carried the machine with the baby back to our medical room. So he could be with his brother, who had cried the night that he had to stay at the clinic..
This is the view in our medical room. The babies are laying next to each other and Peter is connected with the Oxygen machine and with the saturation machine, so we can see how he is doing. We are so grateful for having the oxygen machine, which saved so many lives already. Yesterday, someone came to dismantle our machine and he went to Kampala to buy some new parts for it. We are happy that the machine can be repaired. And we are so grateful to Dr, Engulu, that we can use his machine in the meantime. Even the saturation machine was a gift, many years ago, from a couple who got married and asked money instead of presents, they bought us the saturation machine!!
Also yesterday, I called the pediatrician of the hospital and explained the situation. She came to Amecet to examine Peter and told us that there is a heart defect. She prescribed medicines, which we started directly. She had good hopes for Peter, so we continue the struggle for him.
We ask your prayers for this little man, who is fighting with us for his life. I know we are really limited in our resources and our possibilities, but we go for it and the staff is really doing great. We ask you stand in prayers for Peter and even for his brother Simon, who we also feed by NG tube because he is not drinking so good.
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