A Killer In the Night

Malaria. It is the number one killer of children under 5 years of age in Ghana. On Thursday evening, Sam and I received a call to visit an Accra hospital because his neighbor's child was admitted to the hospital and in danger of losing her battle to malaria. We arrived at the Accra Legion Hospital Children's Ward to find 3 year old Matilda weak and lifeless. As we arrived, her father was also walking into the Children's Ward with a small cooler. I found this different, and assumed he had gone to get food for their family to bring to the hospital. (In Ghana, it is custom to bring your own bedding and food.) In my surprise, it was a cooler with a blood packet for Matilda's blood transfusion that she was in desperate need for. The shocking part of this mystery cooler with the life saving blood, was that it was her father that was the carrier of the cooler container. In Accra, if your child needs blood due to malaria, the child needs in right there, right now. It is the family that has the responsibility to go and search for the blood type of their child that is needed for the transfusion. The hospital will not and does not go and get the blood. They do not go and send a healthcare worker in search of it. They do not make any phone calls to track down the correct blood type. Matilda's father had walked into the Accra Legion hospital at 8pm Thursday evening with a cooler contianing the blood that would transfuse the malaria from her body. Here is the shocker: He walked and drove around Accra for 7 hours going from hopsital to hospital trying to find the right blood type. There is no courtesy call ahead to the next hospital, and the hospital will not allow him to call ahead to find out if there is blood available at a hospital. Its first come first serve, and at any time there could be blood ready. Imagine: You are a parent, you are in danger of losing your child to malaria, and you are sent on a wild goose chase to find the right blood type for her transfusion. I honestly can't imagine the desperation, the fear, and the panic. Here is the next thing: money. It cost a lot of money to treat malaria once you get to the hospital stay, and the transfusion. Not only did he have to go search for the blood, he needed the money to pay for the blood out of his pocket, and the money to pay for the transfusion. The money for blood, he had. The money for the transfusion, he did not. If Sam did not arrive with the money to give this man to pay for the transfusion, this little girl would be in danger. The cost for this little girl in the American dollar was $250. Most Ghanaian families do not have this kind of money. She received her transfusion. Before we left, I held her lifeless little body, her silence spoke volumes of words. According to Sam, a bednet for Malaria prevention cost $9.50 (US dollar). Most Ghanaian families cannot afford this. The Ghana Goverment has run out of subsidy since February 2009 to provide bednets to families. It is hopeful that the subsidy will return in September. This is the desperation of a family in Accra, where there is some chance of healthcare, even if you have to go for the chase for blood and money. Take a story like this to the Voltra Region and imagine how alarming the desperation would be. There would be absolutely no money for a bednet, little chance if any to go to a hospital for medical care. Essentially a child or a family member would die from this disease. This is a preventable and treatable disease.
From this story of Matlida, I am happy to report that as I ate my breakfast this morning, she walked in the door of the Dunya residents. She returned home from the hospital last night. She is going to make it from this round of malaria. She is still very week, but there is color back in her body