Hungry

Last week in the during rounds a child was admitted for severe malnourishment. He barely had any hair left on his head and his body was covered in ulcers. He had flies crawling over him. I cannot remember how old he was and could not guess. He weighed less than 10kg. He was barely conscious. But this is not why I'm writing about this. This happens a few times a day. What makes this story unique was this child's mother. When I walked into the room, his mother was slumped in the corner on the ground. The doctors and other medical students didn't even glance at her, which is typical because its hard to even get them to pay attention to the actual patient. I asked the charge nurse, a Zambian man, who is the most caring and hard-working person here, what was going on. He asked her in Tonga and she replied she had not had any food to eat in a very long time and had passed out from hypoglycemia. I picked up her medical chart (patients carry them at all times) and it said she was six months pregnant. I could not tell she was pregnant...she was so skinny, arms like sticks. A mother too weak to stand, a child with not enough food to lift his arm, and an unborn baby. It broke my heart. So the other docs and med students left for their two hour lunch. I went to my room and gathered my lunch from that day and the day before plus a bottle of water. When I returned, I placed it in her lap and she just wept silently, unmoving, for a long time. The charge nurse spoke to her in Tonga, trying to comfort her. He turned to me and said "How do you comfort someone like this?"