Malaria in Galmi

This 16-month-old has malaria. He needs a blood transfusion, but he has O-negative, a rare blood type that is in short supply at the hospital. The blood bank here survives by asking for a blood donation, usually by a relative, when a patient receives a blood donation. But any number of blood payments will not help this little boy because we have no O-neg to give him.

Blood is so precious here that transfusions cannot be approved unless the patient has a hematocrit of 18% or below. (Hematocrits are a measure of the percentage of red blood cells in the blood. Normal levels are 35-50.) Even a patient hovering around 19-20, which is less than half the normal amount already, cannot receive a transfusion. This little boy has a hematocrit of 10.

His exhaustion, which is obvious from this photo, is a symptom of his low RBC count and oxygen, and malnutrition. Niger has a heavy load of malaria cases. It is the leading cause of death in this country, and a major contributor to the fact that nearly 2 in 5 children will die before the age of five.

EDIT: A donor was found for this boy!

Brad's First Night On Call

Tues *AM Aug 14
Last night was my first nite of medical call.
I admitted four children with severe malaria.  Three of them were having seizures and were critically ill with cerebral malaria, that is when the parasites are in the brain.  One young man came in yesterday but before the meds could reverse things he had a stroke.  It was a very sad case.  I hope my patients made it through.  We give blood transfusions, quinine and IV fluids.  When I was at a hospital in Ghana in 1995 many times we didn't have any meds to help people it was unbearable so this is much better to have some very effective tools, not everything we would have in the States but still some great resources.

I am cutting this short because I am eager to go in do pre-rounds to see how my patients did.

Thank you for your prayers and support
I can feel Gods hand in what we are doing
blessings to you
Brad