James was born on Friday, December 28 at home, in a tiny hut, deep in the village. Someone helped his mother, but after he was born, things went terrible wrong... ..his mother started to bleed, the family looked for a way to get her (and James) to the nearby Health centre, but his mother passed away on the way to the centre..... The family turned back home and the next morning the family decided to bring James to Amecet, they had heard that they looked after baby's. They organized a motorbike and an uncle and an auntie started the 2,5 hour journey on the motorbike, with the tiny baby. (this was Saturday). It was my free day, so I got a phone call, that a new baby had arrived. I told them to take the baby in Amecet and just take all the details. One hour later, Dominique called, the baby was very small and very cold. The doctor of the neighbour's clinic had been called to see him, but we had to first try to warm him up, the temperature was even lower than the thermometer could read. The weight of the baby was 1.140 kg., this baby was very premature, even the family had told us that he was maybe 1 month early...
I decided to call the doctor of Bethesda hospital, here in Soroti. It is a private hospital, but recently, they had opened a neonatal ward. Since we have only half of our team working (the other half is on holidays) , the care for baby James might be too much for us. James has a right for the best care we can provide, and in this situation, I felt that Bethesda would be the better place for him. There was an incubator for James free and together with Deborah, we drove to the hospital. They had already started the incubator and James was directly placed in it, his temperature was now 35.4, because of our efforts. but his breathing was not good. He was put on oxygen and stabilized while he was laying in the incubator. I was impressed by the care and the place, the nurses knew what they were doing and I felt that this was the best place for James to be, at this time. When he would be out of danger, we could take him back in Amecet. For now, I whispered a prayer for him.....
In the meantime, Amecet tried to get hold of the family, there should be always a family member with the patient in the hospital.. After some time they answered and promised to come the next day to sit with James in the Hospital.. The nurses of the neonatal ward were fine with that and they took care of him in night. The next morning, an auntie arrived in Amecet and I took her to the hospital. When we came into the ward, I already saw that the situation was serious, the doctor and the nurse were busy with him and I could read the monitor, that the heartbeat was very irregular and shallow and also the saturation (level of oxygen in the blood) was very low.... I talked to the nurse and left my mobile number behind. I had to do some other things in town.. After maybe 45 minutes, I got the phone call, James had passed away. I felt sad, but also I had seen how weak and tiny he was..... I called Elias, who was on holidays, to ask if he was willing to bring the body back to the village, then I bought a small coffin, (which was still much too big) and a burial cloth to wrap the body in and I drove to the hospital to pick the auntie and James' body. In Amecet we dressed James in one of our smallest clothes and lay him in the coffin, which we carried to the car. Elias and I started our journey, together with the auntie, back to the village.
It was far, thinking that the family came all that way on the motorbike, with the little James in their arms.... It made me grieve again, for life is hard in the village and especially in those situations. While we were driving, we could see the dark clouds ahead of us, while the sun was still shining, it was a beautiful sight! Before long the rain started to pour down, as it often happen in Africa. the wipers of the car could hardly work enough, but the road was not too bad and we came through it. The last part of our journey was really bushy, you could hardly see the small path, but we made it to the house, where family members were waiting for us. They received the small coffin and placed it in a small hut, where the body of the mother was laying. It was as if they had waited for James, for normally, they bury the next day. We gave the story about the last day of James' life and they thanked us for our help. Tomorrow they will bury James and his mother together..
Elias and I drove the 2 hour journey back to Soroti. Even I was sad of the death of James, I also felt that we had done what we could and that we trust God that He will do the rest...
This might be a sad ending of the year, but it is reality, this is what happens in Amecet. It brings emotions and it makes us more depending on God, our Father, Who cares for us and for the children....Maybe to end a bit more cheerful: we are so happy that the diarrhea of several baby's is over....... That makes us happy and to see Eliya crawling now, to see Peter do his first step and Abel smiles when you talk to him. Faith is smiling and feels much better, Martha greets you when she sees you, Sedrick feel better after his malaria and crawls around again and Franciska can drink on her own, without the NG tube.... There are many things to be thankful for and with hope we start the new year!!!
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