Meskerem

Hirute

 Meskerem and Hirute

Coming home!

I have been here over 2 years now and it seems like my role is constantly evolving in one way or another. Lately, I have become the neighborhood Baby Ambulance! There are several women pregnant and due at about the same time. 

This is the story of Meskerem.

She is young, probably around 19 or so and she had her baby last week. A healthy beautiful little girl with a full head of black wavy hair. She has a brother named Ashenafi. He speaks a little English and had become a friend of mine, and so he called me and asked if I would bring her home from the hospital. I have seen the Labor and delivery ward. It breaks my heart to see how those women really do suffer through childbirth. No fancy birthing suites, no incubators or heart monitoring machines---just these crummy little beds with plastic foam mattresses-no sheets on any of them. The laboring women get out of bed and squat when having contractions-there are a few rickety broken down chairs that they hold onto---no screaming or anything. They are so stoic. There were about 15 beds in one room and the ones who already had their babies just had them laying next to them under a dirty sheet or blanket- if they could afford that. All the babies go home naked and the moms walk 1/4 mile to the nearest mini bus stand. No wheelchairs of course. I’ve always heard that childbirth is a natural thing-after all, women have been doing it for centuries without hospitals, etc...But, without the prenatal care that women now routinely get in the west- many of those women and babies die in childbirth.

Anyway, I brought her home and got them settled into the small 2 room mud house that she shared with her parents, 2 sisters and 3 brothers. Her husband was working in another town at the time. I took some pictures of the happy mother and grandmothers with their new grandchild. It was a happy day! The next day I brought her the pictures that I had took of her and the baby and grandmothers yesterday. They were so excited to get them-they squeeled and kissed each photo and then kissed me. People here are so appreciative of such small things....

Two days later I was in my jammies reading a book around 9pm when I heard a knock on my front door. "Teresa".......Teresa.......

("Now what?" I am thinking to myself......)  Meskerem, the woman who I had brought home from hospital 2 days ago with a new baby is very sick. Her brother was scared and seemed very desperate so I got dressed and walked to her house. She was burning up with fever- temp was 104 and she was groaning and gasping in agony because her stomach hurt. She was shivering uncontrollably.  I tried and tried calling my doctor friend but got no mobile service signal (this happens all the time-usually in emergency situations) After 30 mins of wiping her face with a damp washcloth, and unwrapping the 7 blankets she was wrapped in-I decided to take her to hospital. It took 5 guys to carry her outside and down the path through some weeds to the truck and they loaded her into the back on a thin foam mattress we had. The baby and grandmother  came along as well as their neighbor Ribka who speaks pretty good English---and 5-6 men to unload her once we arrived at hospital. When we got there it was typical hospital red tape; they want their money up front and all the necessary papers must be filled out first before they will even let her inside the building. She is in agony. Thank goodness the baby stays sleeping through all this. I got very upset with the unconcern of the hospital staff-I was crying and running back and forth from one office room to another trying to get the stupid card. Finally they allowed her in the emergency room and hooked her up to an IV. There were no IV stands, so the neighbor men and brother took turns holding the IV bottle up in the air.

The doctor said she was critical and needed a sonogram before they decide whether to do surgery. She was then transferred to the OB_GYN ward. I then asked the nurse when was the sonogram scheduled for  tonight. She said "No-not tonight!! in the morning".  What?!!?? She could die before then!   "Yes, well,

we cannot save them all."   (She actually said that!!)  They did give her some pain meds and with nothing else we could do until morning, some of us left the hospital. We all kneeled down in the dirt outside and prayed that God would spare her and keep her alive until morning.....then we went home. It was now 3:15am

She did survive the night-turns out the labor nurses did not expell all the placenta and she had developed an infection.  It was a wonder she did not die! She responded well to the IV and antibiotics and they massaged her uterus and expelled the placenta and she did not need surgery. That was my first experience with midnight trauma runs to the hospital, and unfortunately not my last......

But there were many things to thank God for:  First of all, the baby (now named Hirute) slept through the whole ordeal. I happened to have a pacifier (which my friend Sherri from Texas had given me) and Hirute contentedly sucked on it all night. At least we did not have a screaming infant to deal with. Can you imagine the pain if Meskerem would have had to nurse the baby-each suck making a contraction in her already agonized uterus?? 

Also, I had gone to the bank that day and so had plenty of money to pay for all the medicine and IV needles, etc..They are a poor family and I could see the weariness and fear in their eyes as the bills were mounting up-that they had no hope of paying. She would have died because they had no money to pay for her.

Also, I happened to have a package of cookies in my purse and a full bottle of water that I was able to give to the grandmother so she would have something to eat during the long night of sitting by her daughters bedside holding the infant.

wow........what a night. The next morning I went to see her and she was smiling and relieved from most of her pain. The baby was quietly nursing beside her........what a wonderful sight that was !!!!  I have never been kissed as much as I was that morning. About 25 of her closest friends and relatives were there and they all greeted me with big smiles and kisses and hugs and were thanking Jesus for me and more kisses. I am soooo glad that I was able to help-and I am so lucky to be here! So we brought Meskerem and her mother and Hirute back home again. (Along with her 25 friends in the back of the truck!) Once we got her settled in, I went home and brought back the last of my cloth diapers and safety pins. I gave her a short course in how to diaper a baby, how to open a safety pin, etc... (I have to think very basic here- this was a new concept to them) I explained the importance of washing her hands with soap before holding the baby and making sure other people do also. Again, a new idea. So then I helped them make a Tippy Tap in their yard to encourage hand washing with soap......it was a full day for me!

Two days later-a phone call in the night. “Teresa, please come- Meskerem is very sicking-fever-what shall we do? I very afraid hospital we go? or something like that.....How could this be? That smiling young girl deathly ill AGAIN? I raced to her house. She was groaning and gasping, coughing and wild-eyed-pupils completely dilated.....her brother and 2 others grabbed her up and raced for the truck and away we go again. This time we left the baby behind with grandmother- I was afraid Meskerem would die before we made it to the hospital. The emergency room was filled with 8-9 men who had been injured in various activites-no empty beds. We found a wooden gurney and placed her on it. No sheets, no pillow. Her husband Abraham cradled her head in his arm the whole time. The room was filthy, a bucket of bloody bandages and discarded trash sitting on the floor. No one seems to care about maintaining any level of hygiene. No one is in a hurry either. She is gasping and wild eyed and people are just laughing and talking( the doctor and nurses)--it’s DEFINATELY not “Greys Anatomy” here! They finally gave her a pain shot and took xrays and lab tests. She needed to go to the bathroom and the nurse simply pointed to a filthy, bloody bedpan sitting on the floor. It still had urine and whatever in it. Her brother had to pick it up and bring it to her-the nurses don’t do that! I was told that those are things for relatives to do. Along with running down medicines, getting gurneys, xrays, food, water, etc....Poor Meskerem had to squat over that filthy bedpan in a room full of men and do her business. My heart ached for her. I stared up at the ceiling, trying to hold on to my emotions.....I hope I never have to go there as a patient!

They eventually determined she has pneumonia and she is critical and is admitted to the hospital. We pushed her outside and down to the ward, Abraham still with his arm cushioning her head and trying not to step on sleeping bodies laying on sidewalks.They made a guy give up his bed and put a sheet on it for her. It is outside under the eave of the building. No pillow. No blanket. But at least she wasn’t in those stifling rooms. She was now getting IV fluids and medicine. I left her and went back for the baby and grandmother and brought them back to stay in the hospital with Meskerem.  Another 2:30am hospital run.......

But today we brought her home! She had the most beautiful smile on her face and that baby is just so darn cute lying in her mothers’ arms.

As we pulled up to their house, all the neighbors came out to greet her. Then we had a celebratory cup of coffee with as many as could crowd into the small house. Prayers were offered up in thanksgiving to God for saving Meskerem-and although I didn’t understand what was all said, I heard my name mentioned a few times and know that they were also thanking me for my part in this. My thanks was seeing her family crying and smiling as they welcomed her home! I took pictures of mother and baby and then attempted one of me and baby. Just as I was about to snap the picture-she peed all over me! We all laughed together as I quickly handed her back. It was a fitting finish to this story!

For those of you reading this- I hope you appreciate the incredible standard of health care where you live- and I hope that you are moved to pray with compassion for the poor of this world and what they face each day just trying to survive..... in a world that doesn’t care.

Teresa