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Published: March 20th 2007
The burns unit building
As you can see, the building is rather dilapidated, it´s a shame they didn´t allow the burns unit in the new building Hello all,
Quick fact for you: at the current time of writing, my blog has had 601 views. Blimey. I know I´ve got some faithful blog-followers out there, but I have also heard of people passing details of my blog around, so it´s lovely to think folks are enjoying my witterings on! Not all those views are people actually reading it, but even half that number is highly impressive!!
Thanks to all of you for writing to me, either by mail or placing comments on my blog, you have no idea how much support all that gives me!
And also a huge thank you to every one who has donated some money to the hospital. As of checking just now, there is a massive 645 pounds in my hospital account. I have spent less than forty so far (on books, coloured pencils, jigsaws and exercise books). Please rest assured that any moneys left over will go towards the cause, helping towards the purchase of an anaesthetic machine. The old one was so hopeless and very dangerous. Unfortunately one child died through not getting the right dosage. Que rico bought a new one and it is still not
The burns unit building 2
A second view of the burns unit building. Que rico, in collaboration with some other charities plus the staff of the hospital hope to build a brand new one, cleaner and with facilities for parents visiting to stay over and much more fully paid for: $3000 to go, so clearly our contributions will help alot!
Today I thought I would sketch an overview of how my routine is starting to shape up, and what I´ve been up to the last few days. I also have a few pics for you of the hospital to give you some idea of what it´s like. As a special treat, you´ll get to see Nelly and Gladys with one of the psychologists, Jamil.
My routine is developing such that I get to the hospital some time between 830 and 9am. It isn´t worth getting there sooner as they have physio in the morning and I can´t help there. Anyway, it´s best to wait until the pandimonium of the three children at home getting ready for school/uni has died down and I can actually use the bathroom without delaying their highly pressured morning routine!
Once at the hospital, I do a quick round to see how everyone is, who is new, who needs something to play with or do. Occasionally I find someone has gone (been discharged) without my having been able to say goodbye, which is sad for me, but it´s lovely for
By way of contrast...
The main hospital, recently built, in 2003 still has faulty equipment etc, but it´s fundamentally cleaner and better equipped than the old buildings them when they get to go home and get back to their family.
I spend a lot of my time with those children able to sit up and do things. I´ve more to offer to these, as I can teach them simple things, do activities with them, help them to learn or just exercise their motor skills which can lapse through inactivity. There are two psychologists, whom I have mentioned before, who help play with the children and talk to them when they are troubled and help them to cope with what they´ve been, and are going, through. Again, I don´t have the expertise here, but they tell me that just my being with them and behaving in a different way to the doctors/nurses (I guess more with affection and less brusque) really helps them. This encourages me.
This week so far in the mornings, we´ve drawn, painted, coloured, done lots of jigsaws, worked through the numbers and addition, done puzzles in a puzzle book such as ´spot the difference´or mazes. All sorts of stuff.
There´s a little chap (6), called Jarol, who is terribly burnt, possibly the worst case outside of the isolation ward. It´s amazing
At ´work´
From left to right, this is Nelly, Jamil and Gladys. We´d been playing with some of the new puzzles I´d bought at the market with some of your donations. how he´s getting on in a way though. At the start of my time here, I was feeding him spoonfuls of food as he lay on his bed with a cage over his body as his body is nothing but weeping wounds (sorry if you´re squeamish) and the sheets would presumably stick. Yesterday he was sitting on a chair and we did some colouring in together and he was able to feed himself with the plate on his lap.
This is real progress, as it´s horrible for them having me feed them. Although I´ve got a lot better at it, it´s really hard to spoon rice with chicken into a horizontal mouth without spillage. Don´t get me started when it´s soup! But I am much better than the first time I tried it last week.
Anyway, back to Jarol. Today the nurses were getting him to walk to the bath. He was naked and screaming his head off because his feet hurt so much. It was so sad. He´s generally not a screamer, so he was obviously in absolute agony.
A lot of the more educational play is with Gladys and Nelly. I have to remember to find things to do with Gladys that need only one hand/arm (luckily she´s right-handed and it´s her left which is kept tucked in her PJs). She´s a bright little button, very good at drawing and can write quite a bit. She has a longer concentration span than Nelly, who wants to flit from toy to toy. But that´s fine. Nelly is very affectionate and gets quite frustrated, but to be fair to her she´s been in and out of the hospital for years. I think Nelly lost a brother or sister in the accident that burned her.
Yesterday on the news there was a fire in a school and I was expecting today to encounter lots of new and very severe cases, but nothing so far. I am not sure if anyone survived the fire, Maritza and I were listening at home to the news to try and ascertain if there were survivors, but they didn´t mention deaths or survivals.
I still have a big fear of getting to know a child and that child not making it, but I suppose I will have to deal with that if/when it comes. It´s still incredibly worth the hard moments being here, the joy on their faces when I arrive, their keenness to do stuff together, their reluctance to let me go at lunchtime, it´s just all so touching.
We have lunch in the family about 2pm ish, so I tend to leave the hospital about midday to 1230 to catch up with mail and this blog. I pretty much go the same place, where the speed of the internet is slightly less irritatingly slow than elsewhere. Then it´s up the hill with the micro for a lunch of (nearly always) soup, followed by meat, rice, potato and some veg, followed by (nearly always) some fruit. It´s all pretty healthy, but there is lots of it, and I have to be quite stubborn in saying no, or I´d be completely stuffed to go back to work!
I have to be back at the hospital no later than 3.30pm, which is when I teach English for beginners to a physio and the two psychologists. They are getting on very well with it, especially Jamil who is eager and quick to learn. I really enjoy this lesson as we are making good progress and the dynamic is really nice.
I play with the children until about six, help to feed them their dinner (there are some ladies that do this, but another pair of hands always seems to be welcome) and then get going, either checking my mail quickly, phoning Iain or my parents, or just getting straight on the micro back up the hill. It starts to get dark towards 7pm, so it depends how I´m doing for time. I have tea with my family, which is nearly always left over soup from lunch time. I often eat it but sometimes pass, soup twice a day every day starts to get a bit dull! Sometimes I´m still full from lunch time, so just skip tea and have a cup of trimate (tea from chamomile, coca and something else, which I´ve forgotten).
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it´s back down the hill for Dr. Romero and Magda´s lesson. This is hard, as all three of us are tired and progress is slower than with the younger folk of the afternoon. Nevertheless, it´s important we make progress so Dr. Romero can get as much out of the exchanges they try to arrange with the US and other outside help as possible. As he´s the boss, it´s a real handicap if he can´t speak or understand at all.
The Doc always drives us home (you shouldn´t really wonder around alone at night here) and on the nights I have taught, I tend to fall straight into bed exhausted. On Tues and Thurs, I normally hang out with Maritza in the shop, watching as she serves customers, or watching TV together or chatting. She has had quite a life, and it´s a real insight into an average Bolivian´s (not the poorest but not rich, just trying to make enough to live and give the kids some education) life, chatting to her about this and that. Maybe more on that some other time. It´s now 13.10 and I need to upload some photos before calling it a day and getting the micro up the hill to my family for lunch.
Byeeee
Liz
xx
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Birthe Bermeitinger
non-member comment
Thank you
Dear Elisabeth, It is so good to hear about the wonderful work you are doing at the Burns Unit in Chochabamba. How you bring happiness to the children in the middle of their pain. You have no idea how special it is to me to read your blogs, especially from the Burns Unit. Thank you for writing. Kind regards Birthe (Kirstens Mom) PS: Kirsten told me that Nelly lost a brother in the accident that burned her.