This little fella was in the clinic Thursday for a double whammy. He is from the nearby town of Charlier where roadwork is underway on a river-crossing bridge. Well, the road crew cut the water pipe that supplied most of the houses. After several days of not being repaired, the people had little choice but to revert to taking water directly from the river, which has long been their water source. Unfortunately, in recent months there has been major change in the river waters of Haiti, - the cholera bacteria. So in the past two weeks we have seen a spike in patients coming from Charlier to the Cholera Treatment Unit.
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| Carrying Water after the Pipe Was Cut |
Most cholera patients recover quickly and return home after a stay of a day or two. But this boy's mom noticed that even though his cholera symptoms had abated, he was running a fever. We moved him to the main clinic for tests and found that he also had malaria.
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In this photo (taken late in the afternoon after all other patients had gone), our dedicated nurse Ms. Samdie, is explaining to the mother what medications to give our unhappy little patient.
This whole episode illustrates the big difference a modern clinic can make in people's lives. Not only were we a location that people knew they could rush to when cholera struck, but we have a staff that responds to unusual or emergency conditions that others would tend to ignore. Not to mention the fact that we had the lab tests and pharmaceuticals for diagnosing and treating the condition.
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