The first day of our first week back in Maban I went to the SIM run clinic with Grace to see any patients who arrived with malnutrition. The first to show up was John. He was carried bundled up in blankets by his mother, at first look I didn’t think that he was still alive, he looked like a skeleton. He was severely wasted and had severe diarrhoea and dehydration, I didn’t recognise him but as we talked to the mother I realised I had met this child before.
6 weeks previously I had been in Maban county to carry out a nutrition survey, this survey showed high rates of severe malnutrition in Maban county. One of the houses that I visited on this survey was 2 year old John’s. When we had seen John he was still walking around but the signs of severe malnutrition were already there, he had very noticeable oedema on his legs. We referred him to the clinic for treatment but at that time they did not have the suitable drugs and milk formula to treat severe malnutrition. He had not recovered and he had returned looking close to death.
We were unable to offer the inpatient care required by John. The Medair team had just arrived and were awaiting supplies to set up our temporary wards to treat the sickest children with severe malnutrition. The mother was also unwilling to stay even the few hours we asked to observe him, she was heavily pregnant and anxious to get home.
We could only give him drugs and a special rehydration solution for malnourished children and urge him to come back in 2 days time when the ward would be open, praying that he would survive that long.
John didn’t turn up when we opened the nutrition village at Doro a few days later, so we went to look for him, thankful that as we had been to his house during the survey we knew where to find him. His mother has just given birth so we brought him with his Grandmother to the nutrition village for inpatient care. His condition was very severe with his weight being only half of what it should have been for his height. Thankfully the diarrhoea he had previously had improved on the treatment given from the clinic but his skin condition was really poor with open sores and a fungal infection in his mouth. With encouragement he took his treatment of milk and medications well. After a week in the village he started to improve and gain weight, we knew it would be a long road to recovery but we were hopeful that John might make it. Even the grandmother started to hope again for recovery, she told us that he would catch a fish for us when he was better!
Unfortunately in his third week at the village john took a change for the worse, his condition deteriorated, he became dehydrated and he started having seizures, the team tried all they could but they were unable to help him. Admitting that with our limited resources we could do no more we allowed the family to take John home to die.
A few weeks later at the outpatient clinic an older lady who I recognised turned up with a 2 year old boy who looked a little familiar. After a double take I realised it was John with his grandmother, he was alive and had gained considerable weight. I was shocked.
The grandmother filled us is on the miraculous story since we had last seen him, when he got home he was very sick for a couple of days but he did manage to drink the special rehydration solution we had sent home with him. After a few days he stopped having seizures and started to be hungry, he was asking to eat the food the family were having. He had a huge appetite and they gave him all he wanted and he started gaining weight. They had been unable to come back to the clinic due to flooding.
We admitted him back in to the outpatient programme and he started attending every week to receive plumpy nut and a medical check. He was discharged from the programme after exceeding his target weight looking chubby and happy! However he still needs help to regain his ability to walk which he lost due to his severe muscle wasting .. then maybe he will be able to catch that promised fish!
This story of John has really shown me how we can only do so much, the rest is up to God. We left John in God’s hands on several occasions as we realised there was no more we could do for him at that time. It has impressed on me the need to both act and pray as we try and help the children of south sudan. Even when we are unable to help God is able and we can trust his plan for these children.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” 2 Corinthians 12 v 9
The name that the SIM team gave the nutrition inpatient wards was “The village of hope” (Ban Keeyan in the local Maban language). It has bee a privilege to see God restoring hope to families who thought their children would never recover and to hope with them that these children will grow up to make a difference to the future of South Sudan.
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