Trip to Kampala....

The day after we buried the little Asianut Helen, we had planned to go to Kampala with 3 children, to 2 hospitals. We left at 5 am and we arrived in the Heart institute at 1 pm. The children had done well during the trip, we were also with enough staff. Sharon cared for Mary, Peace cared for Martha, Deborah cared for Patrick, Elias drove and I did all the running around and had Cathy with me (I didn't want to leave her in Amecet, she had already cut the hair of Ruth, the other day!). 

I wrote about Patrick in the previous blogs, he was found abandoned in town at 11 pm. He was quite sick and malnourished. The picture left is how he came. He has changed a lot, he eats everything what he can find..but he is still not talking. The doctors had heard a heart murmur, so they advised us to go to the heart institute for a Echo of the heart. We had planned to go for Mary and Martha, so we took him too. They couldn't find anything wrong with the heart, so that was good news, he is still malnourished, but gaining good.

Then we took Mary also for a Echo of the heart. That was a different story... Mary is in Amecet since July 2017. She was referred by another organization. Mary is 1 year and 5 months old and her weight is still 3.8 kg. She gained  since July 1 kg. She has also a heart murmur but also other problems. The outcome of her Echo was not good, she is born with a big hole between the left and right side of the heart and the aorta is in the right ventricle instead of the left ventricle. She needs to be operated!!! An open heart surgery, we saw the surgeon as well and he told us that they can do it in Kampala, I was send to the accountant to get the invoice... 

The next day we went to the pediatric neurologist with Mary again and Martha. We had slept the night in a guesthouse.

He also saw Mary and felt that she has a serious problem, he examined her very good and he thinks that it has to do with the chromosomes and that she has a serious brain damage as well. we had to go for a lot of blood tests and wait for the results, but he said that the operation might not be good to do, because of her other problems......

Martha is 1 year and 2 months old and her weight is just over 5 kg. She came in Amecet in February 2017, weighing 2.9 kg. She was very malnourished and not able to swallow, very weak and it looks as if she has no muscles, she can't still keep her head up by her self. But she can smile and she can be very annoyed with you.... The doctor also examined her and asked for several blood tests. he was sure of brain damage but wanted to wait with a diagnosis until the results come back...

So after this all, we jumped back in the car to drive the 8 hours back to Soroti, where we arrived at around 8.30 pm.  We were tired, but it was good that we did this, we have been worrying about the children and it is good to get a diagnosis, so we can know what to do (or not to do).

You hope for good news, we got that for Patrick, but for Mary and Martha it might not be so good.....

When we arrived back in Amecet we heard that we have two new tiny bay's, there was a mother who gave birth to triplets in the village health centre. The two smallest baby's they brought to Amecet and the biggest they left with the mother... Two little pretty girls weighing 1.3 and 1.5 kg!! Life goes on!!