We lost a small baby today. You never get used to it... It is always so sad and painful to see a little baby, like Sekundina, fighting for her life, not able to get enough air in... It all started yesterday, everything was normal, she got a bath and was fed in the morning. But 2 hours later, when she was due for her next feeding, she had difficulties with breathing. They checked her saturation (level of oxygen in the blood) and it was low. They put her on the oxygen machine and the doctor form the clinic next to us was called. he checked, they took some blood. he listened to her lungs and prescribed IV medication.
During the day her saturation was going up to normal again, but the difficulty in her breathing remained. Joanne, one of our medical team, stayed the whole night with her. In the morning she was a bit stable, untill she crashed again, without a reason. Her saturation was dropping and even when she got extra IV medication, it dropped untill she slipped away...
Her mother died after the Caesarian operation, she lost a lot of blood and she had high blood poressure and malaria. Sekundina was born preterm, she was small and weak when she came. But we had never thought this would happen, we had fed her at first with a NG tube, but she got strong enough to drink her self now... she even gained some weight!! We got the family informed, the uncle lives in Soroti, he came to see her this morning and now he travels with the team to the village to bring her small body to her last resting place, next to her mother...
While we were waiting for the the coffin to come, a lady came to Amecet. She looked quite pregnant. One of the staff talked to her and asked her how we could help. I was called to come to talk to her as well. She told me that she was 6 months pregnant,but that she doesn't want her baby.... the father is gone and she wanted to sell her baby to me... In all the years I am here in Amecet, nobody has ever ask me to buy her baby.... I have had mothers who could't care for them and were asking for help, but she wanted money for her baby!!! And as I was thinking about the little body, laying inside, who had been fighting for her life and the father, who was really concern for her life. And than this lady wanted money for her yet unborn baby.. It made me so sad and also angry... I told the lady that she should not do anything to her self or her baby.. and if the baby was born and she still wanted to give the baby away, that she alweays could come to Amecet, we could take the baby, but no money would be involved....
In the last blog, I wrote about a new baby, Patrick. He was found in a kitchen, somewhere in the village. Simon and Andrew went to pick him from the Police. They have found the mother. and we even knew her!!!! Last year, also in November, we got his brother in Amecet. The mother left him behind in the Hospital. That time we also found the mother and the grandparents took the little boy in.. Now again a baby she didn't want and she just left somewhere behind.. The grandparents are not willing to care for this baby, it is too much for them. The Police arrested the mother and she was in the cells for child neglectance. Today the Police called that the mother broke out her cells and disappeared. So little Patrick will end up probably in a foster family, who want to adopt him..
There is another little girl here in Amecet. her mother left her behind in a lodge, here in Soroti. The mother has also disappeared. The little girl is angry, agressive and especially when she has to go to bed, she screams... She is not easy, but yes, when she woke up one day, her mother was gone and left her in a lodge... so I can understand she does not like to go to bed and sleep... we can see some change, she likes to be hugged and cuddled now.
Some of those children have gone already through so much in their little life. It hurts to see that all. We were wondering why Sekundina came to stay with us, for such a short time... maybe God wanted us to minister to her in her few days in this world.
We do want to be a doorway to Heaven for those who need us to be that doorway. To hold their hand while they depart, to care and pray for them, when there is nobody to do that. It costs us also tears, but it is worth the calling!!
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