My "Niece"

Perhaps the most anticipated and emotional reunion has been with my very good friend Mushabe (Moo-Shah-Bee) Innocent. Last time I was here we made an incredible bond and claimed one another as brothers. Over the past two years we have been keeping in very close contact sometimes talking on the phone for an hour (quite a feat when you consider that with most of the others I can talk for about 4 minutes and the fact that he really knows limited English). For the most part he really hasn’t been doing well since I left him here last and the majority of his problems are stemming from his daughter who was born shortly after I left (July 30, 2008), Nuwassima Aderah. Aderah has just not been doing well and when I talk to him on the phone I never could get a clear idea of what was going on. “She eats but has no power,” he would say, or “She still can’t walk,” or “She has pneumonia”. I kept telling him that he needed to take her to the doctor and when he would and they would give her treatments but nothing would help. His explanation was that she had some curse, something about him not paying enough of a dowry to his in-laws and so now she was cursed? Anyway, my mom, dad and I decided that when I got here one of the things I would do would be to get her help and find out just what was wrong with her.

The day that I arrived at Innocent’s for the first time I thought he might cry. He embraced me like never before just repeating "Doctor, doctor, doctor...". Telling me he had heard rumors that I was around but wouldn’t believe until he saw. He showed me around his place and told me his wife was away and that Aderah was at his mother’s today. I told him I really wanted to meet her so we travelled off to his mother’s house. I had my translator along with me as I was from the field and when we both lay eyes on Aderah you could tell something was wrong. She is very small, she is weak when walking – stumbling over the smallest obstacles, has a big stomach and most importantly she's beautiful! We chatted a bit about her health while she cowered in the corner away from the Muzungu who Innocent is telling is her “Unco”. It was decided that I would search out the best place in town for her to be seen and I would pick them up on Wednesday morning.

Innocent helping Aderah put on the new dress which "Unco" brought from Canada

Aderah in her new dress, you can see she is still not sure of me.

So Yesterday morning I made the trek out to pick them up and brought them back to town to be seen a private hospital which is supposed to be state of the art here in Uganda. It actually wasn’t all that bad other than the extreme amount of waiting it was pretty decent and the cost was very affordable (for me, certainly not for them). Anyway, while sitting in the waiting room chatting, I looked over at Aderah and noticed that she had a jugular pulse (basically could see her heart beat in her neck). In one second the whole picture came together for me- the failure to thrive, the big stomach, the weakness, the cough - she had a heart defect. I tried to calm myself down and wait to hear it from a doctor officially but in my heart I knew. Innocent went in to the exam room and was in for a long time. I stayed outside I pacing the hallway waiting for the news. When he came out he told me the doctor says it’s something in her chest and wants blood work and an xray. I gave him the extra money for the tests and while he went to pay I kept the file. I flipped it open and read through what the doctor had written “HIGH heart rate, irregular rhythm, gallop beats…” my heart sank and I shed a few tears. My mind started to race…How can this be happening? What can I do? She surely will need surgery. Surgery won’t be available here. She’ll have to go out of country. How do I get her to Canada? Wait could she even get surgery in Canada? Maybe South Africa? Or India? I'll need to get them passports, and visas. How much is this going to cost? How risky is surgery?

The tests confirmed what I was fearing and even more. She has congentital heart defects which would most likely be the result of Tetrology of Fallot (although I am not 100% convinced that's the case). Additionally, she has malaria, mild pneumonia and aenemia as well. After a long talk with the doctor we have booked her an echocardiogram for next week along with an appointment with the pediatrician. We will then decide if she needs to be referred to the cardiologist in the capital or not. I then asked about the logistics of it all…IF she does have the said defect, and IF she needs surgery, what do we do? He told me that no one in Uganda currently does the surgery but from time to time visiting surgeons come for a couple weeks to perform these surgeries. When we go for the appointment in Kampala (I’m assuming we'll need the referral I guess) they will have that schedule of visiting surgeons. In the meantime she will be on a whole bunch of meds to try and relieve the symptoms and help make the definitive diagnosis next week.

Innocent and Aderah after a long day at the hospital. She was so good, likely would put a lot of Canadian kids to shame!

Please keep Innocent, Lillian and Aderah in your prayers this week. He is truly an amazing man, father, husband and friend and I just want to help him in anyway I can.