dead babies and other assorted travesties

Today a woman came into the hospital. She was in severe pain, but noone is really sure what the cause is.

The hospital here is very effective at treating common ailments, and at doing realatively simple procedures. But, for anything less common, it is very difficult. There are a lot of reasons for that, which I hope to discuss later...

So there's not a lot that can be done for the woman. She can go to Port au Prince, where they might be able to figure it out...except she probably can't go to Port au Prince because that costs money...which she doesn't have. Either she'll get better or she won't.

It gets even more complicated though...she recently had a baby. During her pregnancy she had eclampsia, and she ended up having a C-section. The baby got sick and died twelve days ago. Infant mortality (every type of mortality...and morbidity for that matter) is high here. Malaria is deadly...90 percent of its victims are under five. Diahrrea is deadly (unless you rehydrate with electrolyte solution--which costs all of 10 cents a day or so for a child). Malnutrition is deadly...walking in the street is deadly...machetes are lethal...In short, the deck is stacked against children. We forget this, because we have put up walls around our children.

And a furthur complication...she doesn't know the baby is dead yet. Her family hasn't told her...they told her they sent the baby to a hospital in Port au Prince. This too is apparently not all that uncommon. They can't figure out how to tell her...and how exactly do you tell a woman that her child is dead?