This is just a quick update as it is only a few days since the last one.
There is great excitement around the farm at the moment because one of the girls Auntie Yvonne (one of the workers that stays on site) looks after has had a baby girl. Although the situation is not idea, she is a girl of 16 and the father is not interested, we are all very happy because she did not have a straight forward delivery. Two days after her waters broke she still was not in established labour. She had been sent away from a local clinic and told not to come back making a fuss until the contractions were stronger so Christine took the decision to send her to one of the better hospitals that she knows and works with. She was monitored over night on the Friday night but nothing was happening still and the baby was becoming distressed so on Saturday she had to have a c-section. She ended up with a stay of 5 days in hospital , blood transfusions etc and it could have very easily ended up with the death of either the baby, Berna or both if we hadn't managed to get her into the Coptic hospital. The problem appears to have been a low lying placenta which (according to people that know!) would have ended with massive bleeds and because of the lack of blood available here it is very unlikely Berna would have pulled through. Every day a woman here dies in labour in the major hospital because there is not enough blood and we were reminded of this just this week with one of Mr Tuesdays (the farm manager) relations dying just 2 days after giving birth of what is most likely a 'simple' complication.
As Berna needed blood and they wont give any until you have replaced the stock I took a group of 5 boys to the blood donation clinic. They were all very scared but we all gave blood and they realised it wasn't as traumatic as they though and you got free coke or milk afterwards. They are very easily bought!! We are hoping to start taking a group of boys every couple of months as quite a few of them have realised the importance of such a simple thing.
All of that happened 2 weekends ago. Then on Sunday night a taxi arrived with another relative of Auntie Yvonnes in. She was in a serious condition and the family who had been looking after her didn't want the responsibility any more. Yesterday she went to the clinic for tests but this morning when Christine saw her she didn't look like she would last the day. Christine got her admitted into Coptic hospital this morning and she is on oxygen and undergoing more tests. They still don't know what is wrong with her.
Please pray for:
There is great excitement around the farm at the moment because one of the girls Auntie Yvonne (one of the workers that stays on site) looks after has had a baby girl. Although the situation is not idea, she is a girl of 16 and the father is not interested, we are all very happy because she did not have a straight forward delivery. Two days after her waters broke she still was not in established labour. She had been sent away from a local clinic and told not to come back making a fuss until the contractions were stronger so Christine took the decision to send her to one of the better hospitals that she knows and works with. She was monitored over night on the Friday night but nothing was happening still and the baby was becoming distressed so on Saturday she had to have a c-section. She ended up with a stay of 5 days in hospital , blood transfusions etc and it could have very easily ended up with the death of either the baby, Berna or both if we hadn't managed to get her into the Coptic hospital. The problem appears to have been a low lying placenta which (according to people that know!) would have ended with massive bleeds and because of the lack of blood available here it is very unlikely Berna would have pulled through. Every day a woman here dies in labour in the major hospital because there is not enough blood and we were reminded of this just this week with one of Mr Tuesdays (the farm manager) relations dying just 2 days after giving birth of what is most likely a 'simple' complication.
As Berna needed blood and they wont give any until you have replaced the stock I took a group of 5 boys to the blood donation clinic. They were all very scared but we all gave blood and they realised it wasn't as traumatic as they though and you got free coke or milk afterwards. They are very easily bought!! We are hoping to start taking a group of boys every couple of months as quite a few of them have realised the importance of such a simple thing.
All of that happened 2 weekends ago. Then on Sunday night a taxi arrived with another relative of Auntie Yvonnes in. She was in a serious condition and the family who had been looking after her didn't want the responsibility any more. Yesterday she went to the clinic for tests but this morning when Christine saw her she didn't look like she would last the day. Christine got her admitted into Coptic hospital this morning and she is on oxygen and undergoing more tests. They still don't know what is wrong with her.
Please pray for:
- Berna and baby Anna.
- Loveness, the lady who is in a serious condition, and the doctors caring for her.
- Auntie Yvonne as she is trying to look after Berna and the new baby, then has a very sick relative 'dumped' on her. She has not had a proper nights sleep for over 3 weeks looking after Berna before the birth, staying in hospital with Berna, Berna and the baby after the birth and now the relative. She also has a family of 4 children. (not including Berna)
- The children of Loveness. Auntie Yvonne already looks after one who is 6. There are 3 more smaller ones at home. We are going to visit them later to make sure someone is looking after them but they may end up coming to stay with Auntie Yvonne putting even more pressure on her.
Further to this.
ReplyDeleteAuntie Yvonne and I picked up 3 small children that evening. We visited the family of the sick lady and there are 6 children at home. The youngest were the but the oldest, who is only 16, was out. It was after 7pm and they had just put the water on to start cooking. There was no mealie meal to cook and no other food either so the 16 year old had gone to see what he could find.
Auntie Yvonne thought it would be a good idea to bring the three smallest, aged 2,3 and 4, to come and stay with her but leave the others and make sure they have food. That is what we did. It has put a large strain on Auntie Yvonee but we couldnt leave them there. The next morning she was telling me how excited they were that they would get breakfast as well as having eaten the previous night!