It Takes a Village

On outreach we regularly come across ill patients as they are being carried on a homemade stretcher to our clinic. The stretcher is usually made of sticks and rope with a blanket or leaves as padding. The patient might be carried for many hours depending on their distance from the clinic.

Last week, on outreach, we came across a patient as she was being carried down the road on a stretcher. When the family requested transport to the clinic, we explained that we were making a trip to a nearby village, and that when we returned, we would drive the patient to Chiri Health Center. But the family was frantic, explaining that they couldn’t wait. The woman had delivered her baby yesterday and they were unable to control her bleeding. By the time we saw her, she had been bleeding for over 24 hours and she was pale and unresponsive. One look at the woman, and the family’s faces, confirmed that we needed to change our plans. I quickly pulled a u-turn, we lifted the patient into the back of our Land Cruiser, and we returned to the clinic. Upon our arrival, the woman was rushed into our delivery room where she received medicine and IV fluids. She recovered rapidly and was discharged later that day.

The most amazing part of this story is that when we encountered the woman and her family they were a 6+ hour walk from the clinic. Most likely, she would not have survived the trip. But still…the family carried her. And they were surrounded by a crowd of over 60 other members of their village.

When we encounter a patient on outreach, the patient is never carried by the family alone. There is always a huge crowd of neighbors, friends, and relatives—each member taking a turn to carry the stretcher, or to hold an umbrella that shields the patient from sun and rain, or to offer what they can to cover the clinic expenses. Sometimes the trip takes hours… or days. Sometimes they know the effort is futile. But they will ALL still come.