Month: May 2020

EXPERIENCES THAT LEAVE ONE PERPLEXED

As I sip a cup of tea and going through pictures of the recently concluded medical camp conducted by CHIMAMM’s excellent team of volunteers, I am reminded of one of the things that struck me.

I, along with a few members of the team had an opportunity to directly deliver donations (specifically clothes) to some of the June, 5th 2019 mudslide victims. 

For starters, hiking into the hills was challenging because we were not briefed by the organizer, (I don’t hold him against not doing so), so we blindly followed him. As a good number of locals followed us, I wouldn’t help, but wonder what would happen if we reached in the hills and didn’t meet these people’s expectations. I wondered if the organizer had mentioned anything that prompted the crowd to follow us. My concern came as a result of my previous interaction with some of the victims of the October 2018 land/mud slides when we went for a pre-medical camp  site  visit.  While touring  the  potential site for 2019 medical  camp and the actual  area  (market place)  where more than hundred people  died, a group  of people  gathered  around  us, generously sharing their stories and  testimonies.

There came an angry man walking faster towards us and shouting in a local language  (neither I nor  any of my team members spoke or understood this language), with a machete in his hand. The driver came to where I was with a few locals listening to stories and he asked if we could leave quickly. He was worried that  the  man with a machete could hurt us. I declined  and instead  called for  a translator so that I could speak to the seemingly angry man. I perfectly understood his reaction after having a talk with him.  It was alleged that when relief items were given to the leaders, many victims didn’t get anything and those who did, had to pay the local leaders to get something. For example, if it were mattresses, one had  to  pay some  money  (not the actual  market cost) to  get  a mattress, the other way of acquiring relief items was how well one’s relationship was with the leaders in charge of distributing the items. 

So as we went up into the hills to visit some of the recent mudslide victims,  (others  were  in  a  camp/temporary  shelter and  there  was  a  cholera  outbreak  at the  camp during our visit),  I didn’t want hell to break loose especially with  a Mzungu (white person) this time. While we are trained to welcome visitors in my culture, I was unsure of the reaction of hurting and frustrated people. I watched Dr. Holt (Mzungu) as he walked energetically and clueless of what would happen if we didn’t meet the expectations of the people. I called out the organizer to ask if we were safe and secondly if we were close to getting to the site of where the mudslide took place. I was relieved when the organizer assured me of our safety but we kept walking endlessly even though I had been told that we were getting closer.

At the site, I saw huge logs  of strong old species of trees lying down. The mud slide came from the top of the hill flowing down the slope into the valley. Along the way, every little and big thing was covered by the mud. The most hurting one to me was the house (see picture below) that was buried along with a 10 year old girl. It was perplexing why only a kid’s life was claimed (not that I wanted many people to  die)  if  the  disaster happened at around  10pm. I was struck  to learn that when the mother of the deceased saw water flowing into the house (made of poles, timber, mud with an iron sheet roof), she went to seek for help  from her husband  (who  happened  to be  at  his  second  wife’s  home  about 2acres  away) leaving her 10 year old kid in bed. When they got back, they found the house on ground.  Accidents  happen, but  I  still  can’t  imagine how the  mother  of  the deceased  feels  about  leaving  her  child in bed even after  all  the  mud/ landslide experiences that the area has had. I keep wondering how she will ever come into terms with the death of her daughter and if she will ever forgive herself and later on be forgiven by her husband.

MILLY SUFFERS BURNS

Milly 6yrs old from Iganga  district was admitted to Kiruddu hospital  with severe  burns of the upper limbs, trunk and left leg. This young girl got burnt while the mother had left home to go to the nearby bush to collect long grass to be used as a compound broom.  In less than an hour’s time, the  mother was astonished to hear a child’s wailing voice emerging from the direction of her home. Immediately, she  dropped  everything she  was doing and followed up the wailing voice and to her surprise; it was coming from her home. Taking a closer look, it was her daughter roasting in a burning flame. She said that she became helpless for some time until she suddenly thought of pulling her daughter out of the fire, then cried for some help from her distant neighborhood. She was later helped by  some sympathizers who rescued the daughter from the fire and  took  her to the nearest medical facility to have some first aid treatment because she had been severely burnt. The fact that this facility couldn’t manage this kind of extensive burns, the team referred the patient to Jinja regional referral hospital where she was hospitalized and managed for over a month.

The fact that  Milly’s burns were very extensive, she needed an Intensive Care Unit ( ICU) for proper management and from that the primary team of Jinja regional referral hospital decided to transfer her to Kiruddu referral hospital in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where she received care for two months.

Milly’s mother has ten children from three different men and she said the last husband she had is the father of Milly and he has never been supportive. The other  children  from  her  first  two marriages,  have never bothered caring about her neither visit her. She says one of her big daughters is married in Kampala,  the capital city of  Uganda, but  she has never  known where she  is. Likewise, her  big son has a job, but she has never known his whereabouts because they used to stay with their  father ever since she divorced.  Milly’s mother said that her daughter got burnt because she suffers from epilepsy. She said for several months she had been  very cautious about Milly not sitting  near a fire place ever since she was  taught about some of the predisposing causes.  Milly’s other big siblings are married, but have never been of any support to their mother because they were raised by their fathers. Milly’s mother is a peasant farmer and goes around their village digging in some people’s gardens to earn a living. This has been the kind of life she has led for 5years.

When Milly was referred to Kiruddu hospital, she was in a very critical condition and needed albumin levels raised as soon as possible to keep her alive. The  primary  team on receiving her, decided  to start an immediate blood  transfusion,  and  carried  out  some blood parameters that  would determine her albumin levels in the body. The primary team met the Caring Team and requested if we could get on board and help buy some albumin to improve the life of Milly. Surprisingly, it was still early enough that a bottle of albumin was got from the nearby pharmacy, put up and created an immediate change in Milly’s life.

Currently, Milly is much better, the skin grafting has been done thrice and the recipient and donor sites have properly healed. Her nutritional status is better and I hope in couple of days she will be let go home and attend to a nearby facility for some dressing,

We thank God for the life of this little girl and for the vision of the President of Caring Hands, and love to encourage each one of us to have the spirit of love to our fellow people.

God  bless  the  Caring  Hands  Foundation  and  all  the  multi  disciplinary  team on level four Kiruddu hospital for the tremendous work done.

20YEAR OLD WOMAN WITH DIABETES MELLITUS

KS (patient’s  initial)  is  a  20  year  old  woman  admitted  at  Mulago  Hospital  Diabetic unit. She left her parents’ home in Sembabule district 6 years ago to go to Kampala (about 132 Km) in search of employment. This followed her failure to complete primary education due to lack of school fees. Being the eldest of seven siblings, KS had the  task to support both her siblings and parents. In her opinion, leaving home then for employment was the best solution  to  the  challenges the  family  had. She  thought she  would  make  enough money not only to cater for her needs, but also support her family. 

Unfortunately,  with  her  education  status,  KS  could not  get  better  jobs.  She could only  be employed  as casual  laborer and  she  worked  as  a house helper  in  several homesteads with luck to save money as she was often fired and hired after short periods of employment. Her misery got worse in January 2017 when she was diagnosed with chronic and  non-curable  illness; type  1  diabetes  mellitus,  a  condition  that  results  from  body’s failure  to  produce  insulin  to  metabolize blood  sugar. KS got fired  from  her  job  and  had nowhere to stay.  She sought shelter  from a nearby Pentecostal Church that  run daily prayers campaign  and willing  to accommodate homeless  persons. Although  she  got accommodation, overcrowding, poor hygiene, and lack of food were other challenges she was confronted with.  

Consequently, due  to  the  new  challenges, she found  herself  in  and  out  of  hospital more frequently due to infections low and sometimes high sugar levels. She often acquired drugs  at  discharge, but  adherence  to  treatment  was  a  big  challenge  as  she  lacked  both financial  and  social  support.  She  lacked  financial  support  in  a  sense  that  she  could  not afford  drugs  whenever  they ran  out  and  lacked  transport  to  go  back  to  the  hospital  for review  and  refills. Socially,  she  lacked  support  in a  sense  that she  neither  had a family members nor friends to confide in her fears. She was afraid of daily injections and what her colleagues  would  perceive of them not  mention  the  absence  of  somebody  to administer treatment to her. Most times she ran out of medications yet she had no money to afford a refill or travel and see a physician for a review. 

At the beginning of December 2017, KS was readmitted with complications resulting from  poor  diabetic  control.  She  had  high  glucose  level,  urinary  tract  infection  and peripheral neuropathy. She had no one to provide and care for her, had no money to buy drugs and do investigations because they were not offered at Mulago hospital. It’s at this time  that KS’s primary  care  team  called Caring  Hands  International  Medical  Missions  and Ministries  (CHIMMAM). CHIMMAM was  able provide drugs, food  and paid  for all investigations.

Two weeks later, KS had greatly improved and was ready for discharge. However a number of questions arose. Where would she go? How will she get drugs? Will she be able to self-administer daily injections? How will she be able to monitor her sugar levels? What would she eat? Could she be re-united with her parents and re-integrated back into her a community?  There were more questions than answers. 

CHIMMAM  a  charitable  non-government  organization  through  its  multidisciplinary team discussed  the  possibility  of  returning home,  getting  re-integrated  back  in  the community  and as  well a possibility  of further  training  to  equip  her  with skills that  she would  in  future  use  to  earn  a  living. The team  was  able  to  counsel  her  in  regard  to  her fears;  however,  on visiting  the  hospital  to  engage  her  in  implementation of  the plan, she was already gone. We strongly believe that she will be back as her challenges were not fully addressed.  

As  mentioned  above, KS’s challenge  of  having  a  chronic  condition  that  not  only requires  critical  monitoring  with  specialist  care, but  also  finances  to buy  medications, glucometers for continuous monitoring and routine tests. This might not be achievable as longer as KS remains unemployed. As CHIMMAM, we would like to help and ensure that she obtains education and employable skills.  

KS’s story is not unique and many Ugandans go through similar situations. We hope with the Grace of  God, and the support from every willing individual, we shall be  able  to reach out to many more Ugandans who share similar stories. 

Kiggundu John B

Doctor

KJ WITH POSTERIOR URETHRAL VALVE

KJ is an 11 year old boy who was admitted to the High Dependence Unit (HDU) ward of Mulago hospital, by his mother. KJ’s problems began at birth when his father abandoned the family just a few days after he was born due to family misunderstandings. This left KJ’s mother with the responsibility of five children yet she was jobless. Amidst this hardship, she managed to find a relatively low paying job and used the little she earned to send her children to school and care for the family.  Unfortunately, she was later advised to stop working due to a heart condition. 

KJ fell sick in primary school and discontinued his education, after multiple medical evaluations discovered he had a posterior urethral valve, a congenital (present at birth) condition that results in failure to pass urine normally.  KJ was always in and out of hospitals and has undergone multiple surgeries to repair his defect with no improvement. His condition worsened with the developing complications of renal failure, high blood pressure, heart failure, and recurrent urinary tract infections.

KJ was admitted in critical condition with multiple complications.  He required a number of expensive investigative tests which had to be done at a private laboratory. He also required several drugs which are rarely stocked in the Mulago Hospital pharmacy. His mother could not afford these tests and medications. On reaching the father on phone, he said he had no money and advised her to sell their only house back home. With little support from relatives, she could not carry on her own.

Caring Hands Foundation (CHF – chimamm.org) was contacted by KJ’s primary care team.  The CHF medical team reviewed the patient, interacted with the primary team on the ward, and later funded the expense for the drugs and laboratory investigation that were required.  KJ’s mother was very grateful. KJ’s condition has improved and he is still under care at Mulago at this time.     

KJ was fortunate this time round but there are many other children that are suffering because of abandonment, medical illness, and lack of social support. Through CHIMAMM, we are able to offer not only medical care but counselling and guidance for patients. This helps them to know there is someone who cares for them and that they can trust and believe in God “from whom all blessings flow”. Our services bring hope and restoration to those who are in desperate state of need.

Mawanda John

CHIMAMM SOCIAL WORKER