Joyous and Joe

There are twin brothers: Joe and Joyous. Both have extensive burns due to a pot of porridge being spilled. I don’t think that could be true. Not with the amount of burns on both boys. Its likely child abuse. Joe has the worst burns. Burns on both legs and his right arm. His right arm is also developing contractures so its hard for him to straighten it. Joyous just has burns on one thigh. When I saw them, their burns were very dirty and had flies sitting on it. The burns are left uncovered but also the windows are left open and the beds they sit on are dirty. Joyous is on antibiotics but Joe, the one with more extensive burns, was not and had high fevers. When I was there, the charge nurse said he was going to clean the burn s. I wanted to see how they were doing it since the burns were so dirty. They don’t give the child any pain medication. None. Not even Acetaminophen. And to clean a burn, you have to scrub it. Joyous went first. He sat on his mom’s lap and four nurses held him down as they scrubbed the burns with saline water and gauze. He screamed and screamed. Not a normal child scream, but blood-curdling scream. He fought to get away from the nurses. The baby on his mom’s back also joined in, screaming as well. The whole ground was slippery with blood as it splashed down from the burns. It was too much for me to watch after an already difficult morning, so I turned to leave. As my hand turned the doorknob, the screaming stopped and Joyous began crying out something over and over. The nurses stopped what they were doing and looked at me. Then the charge nurse said “Joyous says he doesn’t want you to leave him”. So I stayed, stroking his head as he screamed staring into his dark brown eyes filled with pain as mine were filled with tears.