There was no blood in Soroti......

Today it was my free day, I was answering emails in my little house, when Miranda came with baby Brenda, the baby who is 3 days with us (see previous blog). She felt that Brenda was not responding well, sleeping too much and not drnking enough. I also looked at her and we decided to check her HB, she looked quite pale. Brenda was given bloodtransfusion on Tuesday (4 days ago) Her HB came out very low, much lower than 2 days ago. I went to the clinic next door, to ask if they had blood for transfusion, they did not have any blood. So we drove to the Soroti Hospital, only to find out that there was also no blood available. You just pray there will not any major accident today...... They told us to go to Mbale, a bigger city, 2 hours drive from Soroti. We went back home and there we organised to go to Mbale, the baby was quite weak, it had to be done quickly. Simon was driving and we took also the two Dutch volunteers with us, because they have the same blood group as Brenda. We tried already if they would not take it here in Soroti, but you will get 7 years in jail if you tranfuse unscreened blood, so we decide that was too much. After one hour drive we past another, smaller, government hospital and we decided to try if they had blood. And yes they had!!! They were very friendly and helpful and it didn't take long before we got the blood. we were brought to the peadriatic ward where a nurse gave Brenda a canula in the head and connected the blood. We were given a bed and we stayed there untill the blood was in. We were very much observed by all the other people in the ward. This was probably the first time that they had "Muzungu's"on the ward. We drove home more cheerful than on the way up. We will observe Brenda closely, but she is lucky, we had a car and we could directly drive to find blood, but what about the children who will come after us, those mothers have to get to Mbale with public transport. I know of several children who died on the way. The mother can not show anything, because when the people notice that there is a dead child in the bus, they will put her off the bus. So the mother will say nothing, just hold her baby closely, will step out of the bus in Mbale and will come back with the next bus. Life is hard and unfair at times. The nurse is connecting the blood, while Miranda is holding Brenda In the ward, I am holding Brenda, while the blood is being transfused.Back to Soroti, we could laugh again! At the back Miranda and Carlijn and in front, Sabine and Brenda in her little chair.