Dugu, the 4 year old boy dies.

Mother grieving under forever asleep Dugu, 4y.

It was Wednesday when we learnt about this bad new. This is always extremely sad situation for Whisper.

The mother and her son Dugu reached the children's ward on Monday, where they would reffered him to another hospital in the capital city Kampala,  as they could not provide Dugu with the blood transfusion and the treatment as for his low white blood cells. He was anaemic. 

The boy could have survived if he got blood transfusion and the right treatment on time. Unfortunately the hospital was out of the blood on that day. He was not the only child that died as a result.

Although the boy was refereed to another hospital around 3 hrs away in Kamapala, by the time the mother came back home and got ready for the transfer to Kampala, it was too late.

I would like to explain how it really works in hospitals in Africa for people and children like Nabirye and her son...

Government hospitals are free of charge. So anybody can reach the hospital, get to be seen by the doctor and treated. 

However...

• There is no sense of urgency in those hospitals, and the queues are ridiculous. Hospitals are full and there is nowhere to sit with a sick child (there are no push chairs in Africa).
• Weather is often humid and hot, there is no water, so anybody who comes to the hospital from far far village and already spent all their money for transport, needs to have money for food and water. It is very expensive for those people, so they often stay all they without food and proper water. This is not good at all if people are sick.
• If children are admitted to the hospital, they have to take everything with them. Sheets, blankets, basins, plates, cutleries, cups, clothes, pjs, and lots of money. You are provided with small bed for babies, which are often shared between two children. Small children are provided with a cup of milk every day. Water and food for the rest of the day, needs to be bought from a local restaurants.
• There is no facilitation for their parents to sit or sleep, so they need to be sitting and sleeping on the floor or by sitting on the bed (if there is only 1 child).
• Hospitals often get so full that children are treated on the floor as they cannot be allocated.
• Although hospitals are for free, they often can be without medications and if the child are prescribed treatment in form of pills or IV (drips), and people don't have extra money to buy the treatment, simply they cannot be treated. I witnessed it a lot and myself often went to the pharmacy to buy expensive but simple treatment.
• There is no hygiene. Children are there without nappies. They urinate all over the beds, and people often sit or sleep in it. The only toilets in the hospitals are the most dirtiest and smelliest and actually the most disgusting toilets I have ever seen in Africa. They are actually full. There is no way that anyone could go there and do what they need to do. I myself rather go behind them, then in them. And i believe this is what many other people do... and this is another big problem.

(There is a certain organisation that is trying to improve the hospital conditions and recently they built a small unite - another ward for children that look just perfect. They are white people working in there and the beds and room is decorated exactly like you would find in the Western hospitals. But I have no idea what department it is and which children are "allowed" to be treated there.)

Due to a high malaria fever in children ( sleeping conditions in the villages are disastrous and none of the kids sleep under the mosquito nets) they often need blood transfusion in order to treat malaria. 

Malaria's parasite is very nasty and damages white blood cells. The problem is that malaria symptoms are often noticeable for couple of hours and then they go away. Many people get immune again malaria symptoms, and they only may feel week in some days and get headaches.. 

With children it is similar. If their malaria is not treated, they may still play and do work normally, but as they live their bodies become weaker and weaker and their blood becomes thinner and thinner. Neglected children in the villages are the worst cases, because their nutrition supply is often none. They would eat just potatoes or beans for the whole day. Missing the most important nutritions from fruit and vegetable damages their bodies even more and it does not re-new their blood... Their anaemia gets deadly. Children start to develop weakness, cuts and wounds in their skin. When their reach the hospital, the severity of malaria is so high that it can be only treatable if the amount of blood cells is boozed up, otherwise the treatment could kill them....

Many of our children had this case and without blood transfusion and malaria treatment they may not be with us today... and they may not be the amazing children they are today.. 

Let's little body of Dugu rest in peace. His soul is now with the rest of the angels.

I want to make a little promise...  if God and the Universe let us, we will make sure that no hospital is out of blood in the future.... We will make sure that no other child like Dugu ends up in the hands of angels so soon.

Children are our future.  They will, one day, be the ones making decisions towards better life styles, environment, economy and education. Our lives need to change. We need good people to become leaders. Unfortunately we won't teach the old dogs new tricks... 

 s