Progress and continuing need at Nalufenya Children's Hospital
It felt like the old days of 2015 bumping into Senior Registered Nurse, Charles Etiru, in charge of the nursing staff of the Children's Hospital yesterday. We had a look round my old stomping ground, the emergency ward, as well as the small babies' ward and the tetanus room.
I always found tetanus the saddest illness when I was working here. The children suffer hugely from intense, painful whole-body spasms lasting minutes at a time and set off at the slightly provocation. Ward rounds have to be conducted in the dark for fear of causing these spasms. Children can't eat or sometimes talk and it lasts weeks and weeks. Over half of tetanus patients die and Jinja is a particular hotspot region for some reason, so there are generally one or two children with tetanus admitted every week with it to the ward.
Today there was a young boy in the tetanus room who thankfully was peaceful, with good nursing care and medication meaning he seemed unaware of the powerful spasms. His mother was looking desperate, though, and approached Charles to show him a slip of paper from the local pharmacy. The doctors on the morning's ward round had asked her to buy the boy Anti Tetanus Serum, a specific antidote which is the firstline treatment for Tetanus. But it cost £12 and she couldn't afford it, and neither could anyone else in the extended family. What could she do? Was there a cheaper alternative she could buy, she asked Charles?
£12 is enough to treat a child with tetanus.
Well, of course being right there it was easy for me to give the mother the money she needed - which I did - and I really hope it helps this patient. But there has to be a better way! The hospital can't afford to keep a stock of this drug but at JPIP we can help them to...
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