Our patient Jyothi with TB meningitis has been getting worse and worse. She developed hydrocephalus over the past two days and was decompensating quickly. Her family could not afford to transfer her to a private hospital, so her days seemed numbered and the waiting game began.....
Then a stroke of luck! Dr. Patel rallied her forces and got one of the top surgeons to perform a shunt saving surgery for free. We managed to get the funds we needed from friends, residents, and interns, and we quickly transferred Jyothi in an ambulance (see pic) to the superspecialty hospital and they performed the procedure in minutes. I don't know if Jyothi will survive, but I do know we gave her a fighting chance today! Which was much more then yesterday, and who knows what tomorrow may bring. :)
At the end of my shift, two children were brought into the unit today because they were abandoned by their family at the railway station. They were brothers, and one seemed no more than 18 months and the other 2 yrs. They refused to eat and cried incessantly. After doing an assessment on them, it seemed like they were pretty healthy with just minor upper respiratory tract infections. We called Child line and they were on their way to pick them up. They will now be under the care of the government in an orphanage.
When they were taken a way, I couldn't help but feel like they might be getting another shot at life. Who knows what would have happened to them if they were never found? My Aunt in Bangalore is a social worker, and today I realized just how important her job can be.
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