We praise God that little Michelle is doing soooo much better! She was released from the hospital on Wednesday. I returned home on Wednesday to get the real story and read her diagnosis for myself.
She was one sick little girl. She had cerebral malaria (the dangerous strain), meningitis, and pneumonia. She would surely have died if we left her at the provincial hospital.
Now, she is home and continuing to recover. She is still not feeling so great yet, but she will soon. Her parents are definitely feeling much better though!
(You can tell that Michelle isn't feeling too good, but seeing her sit up on her own is wonderful!!)
In the 24 hours that she was there (half of that spent trying to get her seen to begin with, and then trying to get her out!) she was not given any dawa (medicine) for treating any of those conditions! She was only given a very unnecessary blood transfusion. At that point, I had not heard any “diagnosis,” other than that she was anemic. I questioned it, but got no answers. The doctor at the private hospital was furious that they had given her the transfusion for no apparent reason.
Their answer for everything that seems serious is either a transfusion or oxygen. In this case, the oxygen was needed as she was having extreme trouble breathing. But the transfusion - in this place with extreme high risks for many things - totally ridiculous!
We are so thankful for those who contributed financially to help Michelle. The cost of private hospital care was 17 times that of the public hospital! (If you saw the Facebook post, yes, it said 15 times, but we got added charged thrown in at the end. Typical.) The government hospital was a little over $5 for the 24 hours she was there, which would have been approximately $30 for the next 5 days. The total bill for the private hospital was $520. That is a LOT for here. But considering that I truly believe the move saved her life....totally worth it! It did include oxygen for several days, an ambulance transfer, chest x-rays, all her dawa, and the doctor’s charges. THANK YOU to our friends who donated towards this!
Michelle turns two today. She was born just before midnight on New Years Eve. Kennedy, her father, wasn’t sure of her birthday when I asked him earlier. Very Kenyan! :-) So, tomorrow we will celebrate her birthday at the baby house and have a New Years celebration! So much to celebrate and be thankful for!
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