Thursday, January 28, 2010

weesh


During my trip in fall of 2009 Gladys, the health promoter from Palin, Escuintla, invited me to the baptism of her granddaughter. After the lunch reception Gladys pleaded for me to review the case of a two year old boy that lived along the rail line up the road. I was told the child could not “pee” and apparently the child had this condition since birth. I was also informed that the mother had sought care numerous times without success at Roosevelt the largest public hospital in Guatemala City. Gladys explained that the parents had nothing and were “squatting” in a make shift house in the corner of a lot of some friends. As we approached I did notice a little boy dressed in just a shirt with his hand stuffed down his cloth diaper. What struck me was the look of an irritated frustration on the little boy’s brow it spoke to me loudly. I met, interviewed the mother, and obtained some general medical information and paperwork. As we departed my skin crawled with goose bumps as I tried to shake off the powerful sympathetic sensations created by idea of not being able to urinate properly for TWO YEARS! Luckily, I was able to arrange a consult for the child in the city the following Tuesday. The family did show up that Tuesday afternoon after the mother had sold enough tamales to pay for bus fare. Dr. Lopez ordered an emergency kidney ultrasound and the child’s left kidney was obviously inflamed. Dr. Lopez diagnosed him with a “bladder valve” which is extra tissue that forms a flap over the tube that lets urine exit the bladder. If the child tried to urinate the stress caused the flap to close the tube, when relaxed urine dripped out slowly. A urologist was consulted and the procedure was arranged. The next week urologist cauterized the flap but ran into problems as the camera entered the bladder. They learned that unexcreated minerals had formed a stone that filled the entire bladder space. Formal surgery was done the next day to remove the stone and the child was set home with a catheter while healing. I went to visit the child shortly there after and was able to watch him play from a distance, I tried to get a photograph but he wasn’t going to let that happen. I was informed that the parents had taken a special trip to the church in Esquipulas to visit a famous statue of Jesus in order to give thanks to God for healing their child.

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