The Wrong Kind of Medicine

    A father of a six year old came to the gate, "madam PLEASE help my boy for he is not getting better he is getting worse… My son had an accident and he was burned by boiling water one week and some days ago."

    The man was asked if he had been to the district hospital, or any of the clinics. He answered that at first his wife had rushed the boy to the African doctor, but then with a very dissatisfied voice he said, "Yes I then went to the hospital… but they told me to go back to the African doctor for I had gone there first. Madam the people tell me that you can fix my boy… his leg is getting hot, and very fat it cry’s with white water every day, look at his mouth. He is not eating for he has wounds in the mouth. Please madam…"

    The man had come to Samatha Ludick at Clinic at the Gate after all of the other help had been exhausted. Samatha continues the story,

    "Taking a look I could see he had an infected third degree burn and his little mouth was filled with blisters… his mouth didn’t worry me for it is fairly common and easy to fix, what concerned me the most was his hot swollen knee covered in cow manure mixed with powdered bark… So the first thing to do was to remove all the manure placed on by the African doctor… it was thick and had formed a hard crust… Question was a warm shower wouldn’t do… then the next best thing was to fill the laundry bath with warm water and savlon… just it soak… this took close to an hour for it was packed solid."

    "Once it was clean only then could I see how bad it was… amazing as I swiped and wiped this little lad never once gave a peep… nothing and let me tell you it looked so sore for it was raw…Thanks to all of at the Malawi Project and its supporters I had an antibiotic, silvadene, dressings, bandages, and the other items I needed to take care of this little lad."