Our Newest Addition...

This little one is 2 years and 4 months old. For now she is on the malnutrition ward at the hospital severely malnourished...suffering from kwashiorkors (a form of malnutrition caused by an acute lack of protein and micro nutrients). She weighs 8.5kg (under 19 pounds) when normal weight for a 2 year old is about 28 pounds. And if I'm honest a lot of that weight is from the edema. If you're a nurse/medical person...she has at least 2+ pitting edema in her feet and legs. That means her feet and legs are quite swollen. Here's a close up...it's kind of hard to tell the edema but her skin is pealing off (just like Fernanda if you remember) because of her malnourishment as well. I wasn't able to take amazing photos because the head doctor of pediatrics was in the room while I was attempting to snoop in her chart, figure out what meds she was on, ask as many questions as possible, and get to know her as well...all in about 15 minutes!
Here's what I found out...she is on a 100 calorie milk (F100 it's called). She is getting 150mls every 3 hours. And she gobbles it down in about 2 seconds flat! She hasn't been vomiting or anything and is without fever or any other real sign of major infection. She's a bit anemic but doesn't seem terrible. She is on 2 IV antibiotics and multivitamins at the moment. I was quite encouraged by the care she's receiving actually. And amazingly the nurse remembered me and I got to tell her how well Manuel 2 is doing (I promise pictures soon)!
So...you might be wondering why we even know about this little girl or why she is the newest addition to our crew. The clinic all of our HIV+ children attend called us to tell us her story. Her mother recently died and has left this little one's grandmother (who already has 7 children in her home...new twins included) to care for her. When she was put in the hospital because of infection and malnutrition her grandmother had no one to stay with her.
***Side note...if I haven't explained before...if you have a child in the hospital a female member of their family has to stay with them ALL the time. They must sit by their bedside in a terrible metal chair day after day. So if there are other kids at home and no one to watch them this proves impossible for families.***
The clinic contacted us to see if we could help. We have not officially accepted her as one of our kids but our tias are staying in the hospital with her for now.
My prayers for her are this...for peace, health, growth, and joy. I pray she bonds with the tias who are caring for her and that they are each able to treat her as their own child. I also pray that we are able to contact her grandmother, that she is not a completely abandoned child that has only a small chance of ever being reunited with family again some day (for now we don't have much information to go on in finding the grandmother that has not visited the hospital since Friday). Please join me in prayer for this fragile life!