Red Cross Hospital

On Monday, during ward rounds at Themba Care, we discussed one of our patients who is 2 years old and has been in the hospital for 3 weeks now. His mother works and she has visited a couple of times (or so she says) but he has essentially been up there alone. The doctor said that she would really like it if we were able to make it a priority to visit him because as you can imagine, being in a hospital is never fun...especially when you are still a baby....and here babies/young children who are in the hospital have their needs met yes, but there is nobody to play with them and love on them if their families are not able to be there.

Well, since I've been there long enough to know him I was chosen to go! I was really excited to go spend the day with him but also pretty nervous. The driver for Themba Care was going to drop me off and then I was just supposed to phone them when I was ready to be picked up. Now remember...this is still a foreign country...and I don't have a cell phone while I'm here...and the only number I had on me was for Themba Care. Me being the worrier that I can be at times I was sure that for some reason the hospital wouldn't allow me to use their phone or the driver would get in a wreck and I would be left there!! Yes, I do come up with some fantastic "what ifs" at times. :-)

The driver ended up actually walking me up to the floor Elethu was on and said he would pick me up in the same place. PHEW! That was a relief...I didn't have to navigate my way around a hospital!

Once I was there I was able to speak to Elethu's doctor and find out was was wrong. It ends up he has a respiratory virus that sounds similar to what we would call RSV...where it's very dangerous for babies but if an adult were to catch it we would simply get a runny nose. So...this virus usually takes about 6 weeks to get out of the system and since he is HIV positive it can obviously take even longer than that. So they'll test him every week until the virus is gone and then he is free to go back to Themba Care.

He is being kept in quarantine with one other little friend who has the same virus but he looks great! His nurse was telling me that he is a very naughty baby! haha I spent a little over three hours up there with him...just playing with him as best I could in his little room...fed him lunch...held him while he took a nap...just loved on him and tried to get him enough attention until the Themba Care doctor went to see him on Wednesday.

It was one of the best days I've had I think. Gave him some attention that he was in desperate need of at this point and I was able to take in A TON while I was up at the hospital. The walls are all basically huge windows so I easily see into the surrounding rooms which all for the most part held 6 babies/children. I saw how the children's hospital runs in South Africa....an experience I'll always remember.

PS...I snuck these pictures because I wasn't sure if I would be allowed to take any but I HAD to take some!!!! :-)

Elethu's roomie...a one year old baby girl

The naughty Elethu