Well, little girls who have lots of medical needs seems to be my MO lately. When I was out in the village on Tuesday one of the birth attendants brought me to their home where they had taken in a little girl named Maria. She is a total orphan. Her mother died of what I suspect was TB a year ago. She had been staying with someone but that person didn't want her anymore and sent her out to Nakayot. This little girl has significant Kwashiorkor (as evidenced by her moon face) in addition to paraplegia from spinal TB and pressure sores from the paraplegia. She also has pneumonia probably from a combination of the malnutrition and lack of mobility.
She was burning up, quite dehydrated and very short of breath. And this is what two of her many her wounds looked like.
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| Under the black eschar in this wound is bone. |
Where to even begin?! And clearly this case isn't one the VHTs can manage out in the village. So I started some fluids and abx and transferred her to the hospital. It is several hours from the village so I'm worried this will be an opportunity to just abandon her completely but there was no other option.
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